› added 10 years ago

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TIL that the Amazon River spews so much fresh water into the Atlantic that surface water can be drinkable up to 200 miles from shore

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E17YV TIL that undersea cables are the backbone of internet transmission. Although satellites are used when cables aren't practical, underwater cables will be what we rely on for the next few decades
d8N6B TIL Gustaw Herling wrote a book in 1951 entitled A World Apart about the two years he spent in the Soviet gulag, and that the book ends with letters from prominent Communists assuring westerners that these camps don't exist.
LbvV TIL the majority of states have official “ancient emblems"—several of which are fossils. An effort by an 8-year-old girl to give South Carolina its own official state fossil was thwarted however, because some lawmakers object to officially recognizing the woolly mammoth fossil on religious grounds.
woXGJ TIL that Hans Christian Andersen wrote The Little Mermaid at the same time a man he was in love with became engaged to a woman, and he was overcome with sorrow
5lxQ TIL that treating a cut with hydrogen peroxide doesn’t have much antiseptic effect, probably increases healing time, and can cause inflammation of surrounding tissues.