› added 7 months ago

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TIL the hot spot fueling Yellowstone quite literally blasted through mountain ranges with volcano explosions to “rest” where it’s at today

Read more earthobservatory.nasa.gov

via reddit.com

GGdJ TIL that US prison population grew 380% in 30 years despite a steep decrease in crime rate. At 1.5mil, it’s the world’s largest, and 30% of it is drug crimes.
JYewj TIL that modern orchestras tune to an oboe because its penetrating sound stands out from the orchestra, so it's easy for all the musicians to hear.
N74ye TIL that Carl C. Brigham, a eugenist, used an intelligence test to determine the intellect of recruits for WW1. He concluded that the mixing of races is what was leading to the downfall of American education. He later adapted the test for higher education and it is now known as the SAT.
JYQ78 TIL That not all Spanish speakers roll their ‘Rs’. The Costa Rican dialect does not have a trill, and instead they pronounce ‘Rs’ as an approximant consonant, much like in English.
nolr TIL that the biggest scale infiltration of the US government was done by Scientologists to destroy all negative evidence of their creator L. Ron Hubbard. Even with successful prosecution, they are still considered a valid religion and not a terrorist organization.