› added 7 years ago

168

TIL of the Wake Island Rail, a little-known casualty of WW2; it went extinct when Japanese soldiers were stranded on the island by a US blockade. With no fear of predators, a combo of overhunting by the starving Japanese & the bombing of the island by the US wiped out the entire species in 1 year

Read more blogs.scientificamerican.com

via reddit.com

epv0b TIL During double-amputee athelete Oscar Pistorius's trial in South Africa for the shooting of his girlfriend, he was found not guilty of murder but guilty of culpable homicide (like manslaughter). However, the prosecution was able to appeal his murder acquittal into a guilty verdict of murder.
VddZ TIL that Corexit, the chemical dispersant used to “clean” the bp oil spill, is known to have high levels of toxicity in humans, with known links to lung damage, cancer, and other chemical poisoning effects. Corexit is still the go-to chemical for oil spills with no policies banning it in the US.
WkLwN TIL that the chemical chlorine trifluoride, is so flammable it can set virtually anything on fire. In the 1950's, a 1 TON spill of this chemical burned through a foot of concrete, another 3 feet of sand and gravel beneath that, with a side of deadly clouds of corrosive hydrofluoric acid gas.
GAnDE TIL about Sunflower Syndrome. A poorly understood type of epilepsy, sufferers are drawn to seeking out and looking at bright light (including the sun). This results in a brief hand-waving gesture across the face, or eye-flickering seizure up to hundreds of times a day.
dDmo9 TIL about actor Jonathan Kendrick Lewis who was arrested three times between 2011 and 2012. In September 2012, he bludgeoned his landlady and her cat to death before falling off the roof of her house where he had been renting accommodation.