At the Vatican ATM in Rome, users can perform their transactions in Latin. __________ source: Mental Floss
Fact of the Day
Virtually every bee and ant that you see is a female.
The Shuar tribe, who live between Ecuador and Peru, practiced ritual head shrinking as recently as the 1950s.
The Ancient Romans had a goddess of sewers, named Venus Cloacina. Stercutius was the God of Dung.
During Hurricane Katrina, Formosan termites played a large role in the failure of flood walls in New Orleans. The seams of the walls were made from sugarcane waste, a favorite food of termites. source: American Entomologist (Vol. 54, No. 3)
In 986, a Viking named Bjarni Herjólfsson became the first European to spot North America. He was lost, trying to sail from Iceland to Greenland.
Polar explorer Robert E. Peary discovered that the Inuits wore sealskin fur mittens with two thumbs. They could be swiveled around when the palms got wet.
Polybenzimidazole fiber, also known as Polarfleece, was invented in 1983 and made from recycled plastic soda bottles.
Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln were both born on this date, February 12th, 1809.
Oliver Cromwell, the leader of the Protestant Reformation in England (1649), was the one who originally said “Paint me warts and all.”