› added 5 years ago

92

TIL the water chestnut is not a nut at all, but an aquatic vegetable

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W7QG8 TIL male mole crickets amplify their song with a burrow shaped as a double exponential horn; the song can be heard up to 600 metres away
gM17L TIL: that in 1903 a pair of nearly identical strangers ended up in the same prison in Kansas which helped fingerprinting become widely accepted by law enforcement agencies in the U.S.
BbWr TIL it’s illegal to use hormones in turkey (or other poultry and pork) so “hormone free” turkeys are not any different than a regular one
0doJA TIL that Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1651–1695) was a Mexican nun, writer, philosopher, composer, and poet nicknamed “The Tenth Muse” and “The Mexican Phoenix.” She corresponded with Isaac Newton, studied science, and is considered one of the most important female writers in Mexican literature.
E1ZWx TIL that for his voice performance of Sauron in the Hobbit films Benedict Cumberbatch spoke his black speech lines backwards, which were then played forwards, to give them a more 'disembodied' feel.