30 Interesting Things People Didn’t Learn At School And Decided To Share Them In This Online Group (New Pics)

TIL It is quite common for older homes to have piles of razor blades in their walls.

TIL about Acclimatisation Societies. Groups of people from the 19th century that would purposely introduce exotic species to new places. They are responsible for massive ecological disasters.

TIL Disney's Fireworks use pneumatic launch technology, developed for Disneyland as required by CA's South Coast AQMD. This uses compressed air instead of gunpowder to launch shells into the air. This eliminates the trail of the igniting firework and permits tight control over height and timing.

TIL capybaras, the largest extant rodent, have adapted well to urbanization in South America, and they can be found in many urban parks and lakes. Capybaras are quite docile and often allow humans to pet them though it is discouraged as the mammals' ticks can carry the Rocky Mountain spotted fever.

TIL nearly all French wine grapes are grown on vines grafted to root stock from Missouri. in the 1860s, phylloxera bugs threatened to destroy the vineyards, but roots from the US were resistant. Hundreds of thousands were shipped in and used to save the French vines.

TIL about the Tarantula Hawk, which has a sting that causes "...immediate, excruciating, unrelenting pain that simply shuts down one's ability to do anything, except scream."

TIL that in 1923, a man petitioned to change his surname from Kabotchnik to Cabot. Several members of the Cabot family, one of the oldest and wealthiest families in Boston society, sued to stop him, but the judge ruled against them because there was “nothing in the law to prevent it.”

TIL of "Janet" Airlines, a secret, full-service airline that carries military and contractor employees to sites such as Area 51.

TIL that when a plane was hijacked over Switzerland in 2014, the neighboring countries of Italy and France had to send their own fighter jets to the scene because the incident happened outside of the Swiss Air Force's business hours, and even hijackings weren't important enough to pay for overtime.

TIL many whiskeys in the saloons of the Old West contained added Strychnine, a lethal poison. Diluted Strychnine was thought to have curative effects, a belief reinforced by the fact that in many towns the poisoned whiskey was still safer to drink than the local available water.