› added 4 years ago

75

TIL Hawaii's black sand beaches were created instantaneously when hot lava shattered as it reached the sea.

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6jlX TIL that out of the TOP500 super computers, none of them run on Windows. 498 of them use the Linux kernel. The remaining 2 use AIX, a variant of Unix.
E1AGV TIL that after inventing the lie detector, William Moulton Marston was asked to create and develop a superhero for DC Comics. At his wife's insistence that the superhero be female, Marston created Wonder Woman.
neYoP TIL in 1985, an icebreaker ship was used to save 2000 beluga wales which were trapped in a small area by a swath of ice too wide for them to cross under in one breath. The wales did not want to follow the ship through the channel until they started playing classical music over the loudspeakers.
W7dRL TIL there is a mummified forest of redwood trees on a Canadian island in the high Arctic close to the North Pole. Some of the trees were up to 140 feet tall and grew during a warm period in the earth's history, despite 3 full months of darkness each year.
8M84 TIL that in 2005, Iraqi terrorists held an action figure hostage and tried to claim that it was a U.S. Soldier.