› added 12 years ago

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TIL Leonardo Da Vinci had a pupil who painted a nude version of Mona Lisa, called Monna Vanna

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VMRrk TIL that the first attempt to make an accurate world map was by an astrologer (Claudius Ptolemy, second century CE) so that he could chart the relationship between the person's birthplace and the heavenly bodies. While doing so, he coined the term "geography"
6EAB8 TIL that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas spoke a creole language associated with the descendants of slaves called Gullah as his first-language and that his relative silence on the Court is due in part to self-consciousness from being teased about the way he spoke as a child in rural Georgia.
8p4X TIL Germany has a goal of producing 35% of electricity from renewable sources by 2020 and 100% by 2050
yV5Y8 TIL the term log comes from determining the speed of a ship. A "log" was put into water tied to a rope and they measured "knots" to see how far they traveled. A person who timed things would write down the measurements in a notebook. This is why it is called a "log" book.
rR9Go The National Hurricane Center is predicting storm surges anywhere from two to more than 11 feet high and this terrifying graphic from The Weather Channel shows the power and danger of Hurricane Florence.