› added 11 years ago

169

TIL there are giant human sized Salamanders in Japan that can grow up to 6 ft!

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D1Z9V TIL that gymnastics comes from ancient greek and means to practice while nude.
NXLPM TIL that despite having herbivorous diets similar to cattle, which release large quantities of digestive methane through exhaling and burping, kangaroos release virtually none; the hydrogen byproduct is converted into acetate instead, then used to provide further energy
ADEjg TIL that Gustav Holst composed an orchestral suite, The Planets, with seven movements, one for each of the non-Earth planets. The piece was composed in the 1910s and Pluto was excluded because it wasn't discovered until 1930. The piece remains accurate even today... for now.
LkAPZ TIL: A Harvard study found that graduate students are 3 time more likely to have depression than the average American. It suggest that this is due to doctoral students being overworked and underpaid and questioning "what is my purpose?"as most don't know when they have researched enough.
xVklk TIL of the Shirky Principle: "Institutions will try to preserve the problem to which they are the solution."