› added 10 years ago

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TIL that the Earth’s oceans absorb 25% of the carbon dioxide (CO2) that is released into the atmosphere every year. However, because of the increasing amounts of CO2 into the world’s atmosphere, the world’s oceans are slowly turning acidic.

Read more pmel.noaa.gov

via reddit.com

0dAKM TIL from WTC debris, the structural steel was bought by scrap metal industry and sold to Chinese and Indian second hand metal markets. Several buildings were built with Twin Tower steel across Indian cities, including a college and a trade centre.
Abeo TIL that antivenom is actually obtained by using milked venom from said species and injecting it into a sheep where antibodies are made and harvested from its blood
epn4k TIL that in 1944 a Sci-fi writer wrote a short story describing nuclear bombs and their construction methods called "Deadline". It was so accurate that the Counter intelligence Corps feared a leak or spy on the Manhattan Project. In actuality the info was always there in public scientific journals.
6EPQw TIL that in 1969, Georges Perec wrote a 300-page novel called "La Disparition" which completely lacked the letter 'e'. It has since been translated into a dozen languages maintaining this limitation, including an English version entitled "A Void".
YpoYP TIL people keep finding meticulously crafted hollow dodecahedrons throughout Europe dating back to the Roman Empire but historians have no idea what they're supposed to be used for as there's no historical record of them anywhere. Theories range from dice to knitting.