› added 9 years ago

85

TIL that hippopotamuses are most closely related to whales

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epDJJ TIL that steel and concrete have almost identical thermal expansion, making reinforced concrete (and modern civilization's constructions) possible.
ZpR8R TIL that sharks, whose oldest known fossils are from ~450 mya, are much older than Polaris, the youngest, largest, and brightest star in the Polaris system being only 70 myo.
KYAL4 TIL: The kid who played Anakin Skywalker gave up acting because fans hated Phantom Menace so much. He was bullied in school over it and was later admitted to a mental health institution.
WkQJo TIL that people who have a "fast" metabolism actually have an inefficient metabolism. They have higher levels of " "uncoupling proteins" in the mitochondria of their cells, which essentially causes energy to be lost in the form of heat and not stored as fat.
Bg7NK TIL that the English artist L. S. Lowry (1887–1976), famous for his paintings depicting industrial scenes in England's North West, holds the record for the most British honours rejected, declining them on five occasions, including a knighthood in 1968.