› added 1 month ago

5

Today I learned that, styrofoam is actually a brand name and not what it’s actually called! It’s actually called Polystyrene, I’m now questioning reality itself.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

XYWk TIL Donkeys are used for political protest in Oman because there is no way police can look dignified catching them.
kOwy5 TIL: Pedi people (a tribe in South Africa) wear Scottish kilts. Citing oral history, the use of kilts dates to 1879. They say that's when the tribe lost a battle because its warriors thought kilted Scots leading a British army were women and held their fire until realizing their mistake too late.
6EKGZ TIL that the US government tested 23 nuclear bombs over 12 years at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall islands, including 15 megaton Castle Bravo. The nuclear fallout from this blast was contaminating nearby atolls for 2 days before the US finally evacuated the islanders.
kJ0dE TIL Claude Shannon (the father of Information Theory) designed one of the first Chess playing machines in 1949 that could only handle endgames and no more than six pieces at a time
6YYW TIL there are three “original” citrus fruits: the citron, the pomelo, and the mandarine. All other citrus fruits are hybrids.