› added 7 months ago

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TIL that the Tex-Mex dish nachos was created by a hotel worker named Ignacio “Nacho” Anaya to feed hungry guests one night after the hotel chef had left. The dish was so popular it was added to the menu as “Nacho’s Special”.

V6QQ TIL that Pyrrhus of Epirus, an ancient Greek General, died while fighting an enemy soldier in the streets of Sparta. The soldier’s mother, who was watching their battle from a rooftop, threw a tile that hit Pyrrhus in the head and paralyzed him, sealing his fate.
yQWbe TIL about the Ghost Camaro. During the Bosnian War, a 1979 Chevy Camaro was updated with state of the art equipment by US Military and was used to take much needed supplies to civilians.
xV05B TIL that, when threatened, the yellow-spotted millipede or Harpaphe haydeniana curls up into a ball and exudes hydrogen cianide on its predator, accompanied by the characteristic smell of toasted almonds, being lethal to rodents and birds. It uses chemical warfare on its victims!
yKvp TIL that the compellingly challenging difficulty curve of Space Invaders (many slow enemies which become faster the fewer are left) wasn’t a design choice, but a hardware limitation. Furthermore, some historians attribute the runaway success of the game entirely to this single error.
oBlRL TIL that some plants can recognize preying caterpillars by their chewing sounds and then activate chemical defenses. When sounds were played without the caterpillar being present, the plants chemical response was identical.