› added 9 years ago

237

TIL microscopic algae, not trees, produce the majority of the oxygen we breathe.

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rRdv0 TIL In Ancient Egypt, elite dined off meat, fruit, vegetables, and honey-sweetened cakes enhanced by the finest of wines, but the poor were limited to a more monotonous diet of bread, fish, beans, onions and garlic washed down with a sweet, soupy beer
4XxZa TIL that air traffic controllers get a break every 2 hours. When controllers remain "on position" for more than 2 hours without a break, performance can deteriorate rapidly, even at low traffic levels.
6KJW TIL that alchemist Hennig Brand believed that he could distill gold from human urine. After stockpiling 1,500 gallons of the liquid and boiling it, he discovered phosphorus.
kO9B TIL all of the videos on BBC’s website have volumes that go up to 11
RRZa TIL that Google intends to scan all known existing 130 million unique books by the end of the decade.