› added 6 years ago

274

TIL We don't get all of our drinking water from the ocean because it costs $1-2 dollars per cubic meter (264 gallons) to desalinate ocean water, while only costing 10-20 cents to purify fresh water.

Read more scientificamerican.com

via reddit.com

YpxNG TIL of the Machine Identification Code. A series of secret dots that certain printers leave on every piece of paper they print, giving clues to the originator and identification of the device that printed it. It was developed in the 1980s by Canon and Xerox but wasn't discovered until 2004.
7Nvx TIL in the 50s, teenagers having a stable monogamous relationship (“going steady”) was considered edgy and frowned upon by parents and the church as amoral. Instead they encouraged their kids to go out with different people every weekend. (read column on the right)
dDmeQ TIL virtually all of the communion wafers that are distributed in churches in the United States are made by a single for-profit company.
d8kGZ TIL that American evacuees must pay to be evacuated from anither country, andntheir passports are withheld until the bill is paid
9wypm TIL in 2017 a couple survived a wildfire in California by jumping into a neighbors pool and staying submerged for 6 hours. They came up for air only when they needed to, using wet t-shirts to shield their faces from falling embers.