› added 12 years ago

104

TIL that the status of the chameleon in Spain was changed from “endangered” to “near threatened” after it was discovered that the number of individuals had been vastly underestimated. The experts conducting the original census couldn’t see most chameleons as they were so well camuflaged.

Read more macroinstantes.blogspot.de

via reddit.com

QJxn6 TIL Charles Dickens' stories were often published in a series with cliffhanger endings. When a ship arrived in New York Harbor carrying the next installment of "The Old Curiosity Shop", Dickens fans crowded on the dock screaming, “Is little Nell dead?"
QJPve TIL That diamonds are the most common gemstone in the world and that most of them are mined by a corporation known to have used murder and kidnapping in order to corner the market.
8epvV TIL that Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville created the Phonautograph, the earliest known device for recording sound and patented it on March 4th 1857, a full 20 years before Thomas Edison created the Phonograph.
BrBmK TIL about dry ice on Mars. This is a winter image of dry ice on Mars showing eroded channels filled with frozen carbon dioxide that appear like white ghostly spiders. During the Martian summer the ice will sublimate into the atmosphere, leaving the empty channels behind until Martian winter returns.
LGNr TIL The film Memento is lauded by medical experts for its accurate portrayal of anterograde amnesia and is considered “close to a perfect exploration of the neurobiology of memory”