› added 7 years ago

812

TIL about the Old Man, a 30 foot tree stump that has been floating around vertically on Crater Lake for 130 years and scientists aren’t really sure why.

Read more activenorcal.net

via ift.tt

R7AJ1 TIL of Porajmos, Nazi Germany’s and its WWII allies’ effort to commit ethnic cleansing and eventually genocide against Europe’s Romani people. Later research cited by Ian Hancock estimated the death toll to be at about 1.5 million out of an estimated 2 million Roma.
0dgEA TIL physicist Walter Jaeger was trying to invent a sensor to detect poison gas. He expected the gas to alter the sensor's electric current but it did not. Frustrated, he lit a cigarette and was surprised to see smoke altered the current. This discovery led to the creation of the modern smoke alarm.
ADO5d TIL of chess boxing. Alternating between 3 minutes of chess and 3 minutes of boxing until achieving knockout in one of them.
9ZQM TIL that president George H.W. Bush was once given a 9-foot Komodo dragon as a gift from the Indonesian government. Its name was “Naga”, and it was the largest Komodo dragon in the western hemisphere. He donated it to the Cincinnati Zoo.
4OX5 TIL that former U.S. Congressman John Jenrette once had sex with his wife on the steps of the Capitol Building during a break in a late night Congressional session.