› added 10 months ago

57

TIL people who work at U.S. nuclear power plants are exposed to less radiation than what is given off by the granite walls inside the U.S. Capitol Building

Read more pbs.org

via reddit.com

Xy4Q TIL that in 2013, scientists were able to plant and grow an extinct tree from 2000 year old seeds
JYeKQ TIL that when Indonesia's Mt. Tambora erupted in 1815, it ejected up to 51 cubic miles of pulverized rock and ash into the atmosphere. The debris blocked so much sunlight that it caused global cooling, with New England getting heavy snow into June.
QJaKk TIL A study of robot aesthetics has found non-human-like machines gather positive emotional responses from viewers, while humanoid objects that imperfectly resemble human beings produces feelings of eeriness and revulsion in observers. This dip in positive responses is called the Uncanny Valley.
axaA TIL of a magician with the name of Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin, who was asked by Louis-Napoleon to suppress a possible rebellion in French-controlled Algeria using his magic tricks and he succeed in doing so.
gr1v9 TIL Silicon & Synapse, Inc was founded on February 8, 1991, but changed their name to Chaos Studios, Inc. in 1993 because of confusion with breast implants. The company changed the name again in 1994 because of Chaos Technologies and they became Blizzard Entertainment because it passed a name check.