› added 12 years ago

103

TIL Peacock feathers are actually brown, but have microscopic structures that interfere with light that make the bright iridescence.

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5VyDB TIL: The Eastgate Centre in Harare, Zimbabwe, uses passive cooling in a design inspired by termite mounds. It uses 35% less energy than comparable buildings, saving approximately 10% of the building's capital costs.
b9lpE TIL of the ‘Year 2038 Problem" which is that because of the way that Unix systems tracks time they cannot go past 19 January 2038 and will instead go backwards to 1901.
7rwaZ TIL In 2018, over 300 people drowned in Germany. The drownings have been linked to 'parents phone fixation.' In the past, parents spent more time with their children in the swimming pool. Increasingly, parents are fixated by phones and not paying attention to their children.
KW79 TIL that New York City spent nearly $1 million on typewriters in 2009, mostly for the NYPD, which still used them to fill out property and evidence vouchers, which were printed on carbon-paper forms
xVk8B TIL Coca Cola allegedly used Colombian death squads to terrorise workers and prevent the organisation of unions