› added 4 years ago

231

TIL that survival expert Bear Grylls, a Special Forces Reservist from 1994 to 1997, was very lucky to survive a parachute malfunction while training with the SAS in Africa. His parachute split at 1,600 feet. He fell and landed, fracturing three vertebrae. Incredibly, his spinal cord stayed intact.

Read more nam.ac.uk

via reddit.com

JYlpm TIL that movie sets call clothespins C-47 for Tax purposes
wLWOo TIL of the Great Oxidation Event when bacteria evolved photosynthesis about 2.4 BYA, generating O2 as a waste product which changed the methane atmosphere, led to planetary cooling, triggered a series of ice ages, a mass extinction event, new minerals, and led to the evolution of multicellular life.
8elDb TIL: Excel spreadsheet can handle 1,048,576 rows and 16,384 columns at a time.
e0oob TIL about a company called Aereo that leased individual antennas and DVRs situated in a remote warehouse. This allowed users to access broadcast TV over the internet. Cable companies sued and the Supreme Court shut them down
6EKdX TIL that “elevator music” and “hold music” had its beginnings in WWI when an Army Major General, George Owen Squier, invented a way to transmit music from phonograph records, long distance over electrical power lines. This invention led him to start the Muzak company.