› added 10 years ago

117

TIL that in the 1960s Chrysler developed a car powered by a gas turbine engine. It could rev to 44,500 rpm, sounded like a vacuum cleaner and could run on diesel, petrol, kerosine, jet fuel and as the President of Mexico proved, tequila.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

R5m0a TIL about Heard Island and McDonald Islands, an Australian external territory comprising a volcanic group of mostly barren Antarctic islands. The islands, which are uninhabited, are among the most remote places on Earth, they can be reached only by sea, which from Australia takes two weeks
0wrwv TIL a library in Herculaneum was burned and buried in 79 AD when Mt. Vesuvius erupted. For 250+ years, scholars have been unrolling/attempting to decipher recovered manuscripts from the only antiquarian library ever recovered. The site was never fully excavated; it is assumed more are still buried.
m1lLP TIL at the prompting of a prison chaplain, Joseph Paul Jernigan of Texas accepted to donate his body for scientific research or medical use. His cadaver was then used by the Visible Human Project, which then cut his body in 1871 1-millimeter cross-sections, which were then digitalized
9wwOm TIL that pretty much evry other country bases the beginning of Summer and Winter on the solstices. I’m Aussie and here summer always begins on December first; Winter always begins on June first. I used other sources to verify this as well; this one is just the best site where the point is most clear
p8GQe TIL People with depression are more likely to use absolutist words e.g: “always” “never” “completely”