› added 10 years ago

122

TIL breathing the air in Beijing is equal to smoking 21 cigarettes a day in health effects.

Read more echinacities.com

via reddit.com

JYrV4 TIL about a tombstone mentality which is an attitude, in aviation air safety, of ignoring design defects until people have died because of them.
ADQDo TIL that Queen termites can live up to 50 years and can 'permit' secondary reproductives (females) to create satellite nests for the colony, but can also chemically block reproduction for the entire colony at any time if she chooses.
mJmP TIL the American Communist party tried to help 9 black men get fair trials in the 1930’s
jND1E TIL of Victor Prather, a NASA pilot who successfully tested a new space suit in a low-orbit flight in 1961. Prather opened his suit’s faceplate when he could breathe again on descent, and landed in the ocean as planned; however, his suit’s buoyancy was ruined by his open faceplate, and he drowned.
Rd69 TIL the Soviet government advised those working on the Chernobyl disaster to drink half a glass of vodka for every two hours in Chernobyl. The radiation was supposed to accumulate in the thyroid glands and the vodka was thought to help clean out the radiation.