› added 12 years ago

426

TIL, upon the advent of wood [400mya], it took fungi 50mil yrs to evolve a way to decompose it. Until then, wood just piled up, never to decay. It is this single fact that led to the Carboniferous period [BBC doc.]

Read more youtube.com

via reddit.com

X0GZr TIL the sky looks blue because gases and particles in the air scatter light from the sun and shorter blue wavelength light is scattered more than other wavelengths, so we see more of the blue than other colors. Sunsets are more atmosphere scattering most of the blue so you see more reds and yellows
kOBAg TIL a teenager rappelled from the roof of a car dealership, stole chef Guy Fieri's Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder, and managed to keep and use the car for over a year before being arrested on an unrelated attempted murder charge which led to recovery of the vehicle.
75rP TIL the creator of Wonder Woman was in a polyamorous relationship with two feminists, whom where his inspirations
7kRx TIL that the world’s oldest conjoined twins are 63 years old and have been both best friends and enemies throughout their life.
e0xN4 TIL that one of the reasons Thomas Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark to map the American West was to find mastodons—a large, extinct, elephant-like mammal. Jefferson was interested in the fossils being discovered across North America and believed there were still mastodons roaming the unexplored West.