› added 9 years ago

579

TIL concrete can be made translucent by incorporating optical fibers in merely 4% of its volume. The material feels and behaves just like concrete, but allows light to pass through.

Read more wipo.int

via reddit.com

l7Wp7 TIL that Set, the ancient Egyptian god of chaos, is depicted with the head of an animal that is consistently rendered but bears a resemblance to no known creature. The, "set animal," is also sometimes depicted sitting or standing in fully animal form.
xl7w TIL “Good Will Hunting” was going to be a Kevin Smith film until he declined, saying they needed a good director.
KODew TIL of Thor Heyerdahl, the Norwegian adventurer and scientist, who became notable for his Kon-Tiki expedition in 1947, in which he sailed 8,000 km (5,000 mi) across the Pacific Ocean in a hand-built raft from South America to the Tuamotu Islands to prove the Ancients could've accomplished this too.
5AxP TIL that Chicago’s gangs kept crack out of the city for much of the 1980’s, because they feared it would lead to small-time dealers challenging their control of the drug trade
EgYL0 TIL that in 2015, a Columbian man's lung tumors were found to be the result of a tapeworm that had burrowed inside him developing cancer and spreading it to the man.