› added 5 years ago

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TIL measuring 4086mi^2, the largest salt pan Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia is so flat that rain can’t drain, creating the world’s largest natural mirror. It’s also 5x better for satellite calibration than the surface of the ocean, and an elevation measurement accuracy of 0.8 inches

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via reddit.com

NZMe TIL that the Indian Pipe plant is one of the rare plants which doesn’t contain chlorophyll and thus doesn’t photosynthesize, getting all its energy from fungi.
6ml7 TIL that there is a hardcore full contact style of Karate called “Kyokushin” which means “The Ultimate Truth” in Japanese where students fight barehanded and have to fight 100 people in a row in order to get a black belt.
5de9 TIL that before the advent of air travel, landowners used to own an infinitely tall column of air rising above their property. Today there’s no official verdict on where property rights end, but U.S. policy is that anything above 500 feet is navigable airspace.
KOA1B TIL that “ruby” chocolate is the fourth chocolate type and the first new chocolate type in 80 years. It is pink due to the color of the cocoa beans used to make it. It was unveiled by Swiss-Belgian cocoa company Barry-Callebaut in September 2017, and had been in development since 2004.
neOr9 TIL while studying Madagascar periwinkle leaves used as folk remedy for diabetes in the 1950s, scientists found plummeting white blood cells instead and isolated out vinblastine and vincristine — effective chemotherapy drugs which has dramatically improved survival in leukemia patients.