› added 10 years ago

149

TIL Coal Power Plants generate more radiation than Nuclear Power Plants. Coal contains uranium and thorium, both radioactive elements.They occur in such trace amounts in natural coal. But when coal is burned into fly ash, uranium and thorium are concentrated at up to 10 times their original levels.

Read more scientificamerican.com

via reddit.com

780QP TIL that Jed, the dog who played the "villain" dog in the 1982 film The Thing was the same dog that played White Fang in the 1991 Disney movie
OroY TIL 1816 was called “The Year Without a Summer” after the eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia. Crop failure forced Joseph Smith to leave Vermont, and his journeys resulted in “The Book of Mormon,” the dreary rain in Switzerland drove Mary Shelley to stay indoors, where she wrote “Frankenstein.”
WaJo TIL that the raptors’ barking sounds in Jurassic Park were sampled from a recording of a tortoise having sex.
Lk7ev TIL that a park ranger on Rinca Island was attacked by a Komodo dragon in his own office after a cleaner had left the door open the night before. The dragon was hiding under his desk when he sat down. The smell of blood attracted more outside. The ranger was taken to the hospital and recovered.
QNbrE TIL it was said that Frederick the Great had a physical disgust of women. He once shocked a dinner party with an offensive rant against "ghastly women you smelled ten miles around". When he saw his wife for the first time in six years, he only told her: "Madame has become more stout" and then left.