› added 9 years ago

69

TIL that over 99.8% of deceased Japanese are cremated at their funeral (mostly to save space).

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

7B9b TIL that 170 people were able to guess the number of jelly beans in a jar accurate to .1% when their answers were averaged. Out of 4520 beans, the average guess was 4524. The phenomena is known as wisdom of the crowd.
Brylk TIL that rainforest canopies have their own soil that is completely distinct from the soil on the ground. This "canopy soil" forms on the tops of branches from the death of mosses and plants, and sustains a high richness of fungal species that regulate nitrogen and nutrients in the forest.
M7X7b TIL that all of the gold ever discovered by humankind would fit in a cube that is only 22 meters wide on every side.
4kr9a TIL Bram Stoker wrote "Dracula" in the 1890s. Although many link the novel to Vlad the Impaler, Stoker’s notes don’t mention him. Instead, he found the name "Dracula" in a library, mistakenly believing it meant "devil" in Romanian.
WWJY TIL Finland is the first nation in the world to experiment with autonomous vehicles in urban conditions. That is because the country’s book of law doesn’t oblige the driver to be inside the vehicle.