› added 13 years ago

181

TIL that on November 6, the people of Puerto Rico will vote on whether to become the 51st state

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nrdB TIL A budgie named Puck is listed in the Guinness World Book of Records as “The bird with the largest vocabulary in the world ” with a vocabulary of 1728 words. Also he wouldn’t just mimic, he would often create his own phrases and sentences.
GZ65 TIL “the pot calling the kettle black” is meant to refer to a scenario where the kettle is actually well-polished, and the blackness that the pot sees is its own reflection
rRwAo TIL that the plagues of the Middle Ages have made around 10% of Europeans resistant to HIV. These individuals carry a genetic mutation (known as CCR5-Ä32) that prevents the virus from entering the cells of the immune system. The plagues of the Middle Ages played a part in creating these mutations.
BrwKy TIL the "ultimate parasitic ant" spends most of its adult life clinging to the back of its host, laying two eggs every minute.
V8DG TIL Researchers at MIT studied phantom traffic jams (jams that arise in the absence of any obstacles) and found they are inevitable at a certain vehicle density threshold. The waves of traffic are named Jamitons, and are similar to the equations that describe detonation waves produced by explosions.