› added 12 years ago

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TIL Shrek’s appearance may have been modelled after French wrestler, Maurice Tillet (pics)

pyA4 TIL: Shell launched the biggest vessel ever put to sea in 2013. The Prelude FLNG platform is longer than Sears Tower is tall, costs ~$12 billion, will weigh 600,000 tonnes (5 times as much as an aircraft carrier) and withstand category 5 cyclones.
MVmV TIL the only person a 5-star U.S. general will salute first (other than the president) is a Medal of Honor recipient.
b9wy7 TIL that the Doomsday Clock, a symbolic tool used by scientists to measure how close the world is to a man-made global catastrophe, is currently at “100 seconds to midnight”, the closest it has ever been since its creation in 1947.
Br87L TIL that New Zealand has the highest death rate for young people in the developed world alongside having the highest suicide rate, despite the outside world thinking New Zealand is the closest country to becoming a utopia.
jN6KR You probably know that your visual perception of the world is a bit different than your pets’. Dogs see things with less color than humans, snakes can see infrared, and if you have a pet bull, it lives in a world where red and green are the same color. This brings up a good question. Why do you have a pet bull? You should get a cat instead, and when you do, it is important to know that your new friend can’t focus on objects farther than 20 feet away. The point is, animals have evolved to see in a variety of ways. But how can we see things through their eyes? Marine biologist and National Geographic Emerging Explorer David Gruber collaborated with a research team to develop lights and camera filters that allowed him to do just that, underwater. Through their work, the team discovered biofluorescence in an abundance of aquatic species. This “glowing” trait has to do with how an organism absorbs and emits light. Research has indicated that this radiance is possibly used for communication and camouflage. One caveat: You need a certain species of eyes (or David’s camera) to see it. Swell sharks (Cephaloscyllium ventriosum) have fluorescent proteins inside their skin, which are triggered by the ocean’s blue light, becoming visible to other swell sharks. David’s camera has special yellow filters that allow the simulation of a swell shark’s vision. It turns out there is a massive rave going on 500 meters below the ocean’s surface, and one of the glowing guests is a type of cat shark!