› added 6 years ago

714

TIL that a conman, J.D. McMahon, managed to collect $200,000 from investors in building a 40 ft-tall (480 in or 12 m) building- the infamous Newby-McMahon Building, also known as the world's littlest skyscraper. McMahon neglected to specify that the building’s scale was measured in inches, not feet.

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via reddit.com

9Y6w7 TIL The crew of Planet Earth II filmed the mass birth gathering of Saiga Antelope, only to witness a disease spread and wipe out more than 150,000 antelope within 3 days.
grvB9 TIL ants that farm aphids influence the aphids’ genes in a similar way that we do with cows. Aphid-farming ants prefer and select for red/green polymorphism.
b9glZ TIL lionfish are an invasive species in the Atlantic and are detrimental to native fish stocks because of how fast they can breed. Scientists have traced their DNA back to a few sources that they think were "set free" by aquarium owners in the 80's
RALw TIL that George Washington was a redhead.
X01Rr TIL that the redwood tree the Julia Butterfly Hill lived in for 2 years in the 1990’s was badly damaged by vandals in 2000 who cut almost halfway through the tree with a chainsaw. A bracing was made to keep the tree stable and it will likely survive.