› added 5 years ago

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TIL that pine needles are actually modified leaves, with a shape evolved to shed snow more easily, and with natural antifreeze called cryoprotectants that prevent cellular damage during the cold winter months.

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wL4rY TIL while the Icelandic airline Loftleiðir was only allowed to operate flights to and from Iceland, they managed to circumvent the rule by having their USA-continental Europe flights covered by two tickets: one for flying to Iceland, and the other for flying from Iceland to the mainland.
VBQA0 TIL Sonja Farsi and Annie Dookhan, two Massachusetts lab technicians were responsible for handing pver 70,000 cases and around 15,000 false convictions by tampering with and intentionally falsifying drug evidence
B4Qd TIL I learned Charles Lindbergh used a mask called an Armbrust cup to reclaim the water from his breath. 34 years before Dune was published.
x6blB TIL that some members of the Sama-Banjau ethnic group intentionally rupture their ear drums at a young age in order to improve their ability to dive & hunt at sea. This allows them to dive for extended periods of time between varying depths without worrying about pain from water pressure changes
16p7d TIL about Otto Esche's attempts to import Bactrian camels to Nevada to transport salt across the Sierra Nevada. Silver miners and their animals hated the camels so much that "Virginia City, Nevada, passed an ordinance outlawing camels on the town streets except between midnight and dawn."