› added 1 year ago

194

TIL As a child, Alice Munro was appalled by the ending of The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Anderson and rewrote the ending to a happy one

Read more cbc.ca

via reddit.com

vPGbB TIL Stenographers (courtroom typists) don't use QWERTY keyboards. They use a specialized device called a Stenotype that inputs words in phonetic shorthand rather than letter by letter. Skilled stenographers can type over 300 words per minute.
rRWVw TIL The vanilla orchid blooms for one day in a year and the flower is only fertile for 8-12 hours. Each flower must be pollinated by hand within that 12-hour window. Unsurprisingly vanilla is nearly as expensive as silver
m1wkv TIL that before Esther Williams became an actress, she planned on competing in the 1940 Olympics, but the Olympics games were cancelled that year due to the outbreak of the Second World War.
pnmA TIL According to a study, abstaining from ejaculation has little effect on testosterone levels in men for 6 days, but testosterone levels reach approximately 146 percent on the seventh day.
b6Le9 TIL that Armadillos give birth to four identical quadruplets every time!