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TIL the design of large Victorian-era glasshouses takes its cue from the waterlily's huge leaves. Joseph Paxton tested his idea by standing his daughter on a floating leaf, and then went on to build the 1,851 feet (564 m) long, 128 feet (39 m) high Crystal Palace using the same principle

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GYDoQ TIL: Research has shown that when speaking, individuals who have been congenitally blind and have thus never seen anyone gesture nonetheless make hand motions just as frequently and in the same way as sighted people do. In fact, they will gesture even when conversing with another blind person.
wOdJ TIL using fountain pens in a school in Edinburgh improved academic performance and self esteem
mxwno TIL that Japan has a phone to call the dead. The "wind phone" was created by a man named Itaru Sasaki, who thought that it would be a healing way to talk to his cousin who had passed away—even if the conversation was one-sided. Others now also use the phone in order to feel closer to their deceased.
VMZkG TIL the composition technology used in the penguin animation scene of Mary Poppins wasn't green/blue screen but actually a whole new process called Sodium Vapor Process. They only made one camera for it since they could never recreate the central piece of technology that made it work - a prism
0Zkj TIL that in 1975, the Food and Drug Administration ruled that Pringles cannot legally call themselves “Potato chips” because they’re not made from sliced potatoes. Also, in the UK, the company tried to argue that Pringles weren’t chips (“crisps” in the UK) because chips are subject to a 17.5% VAT