› added 7 years ago

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TIL of "Shifting Baseline Syndrome." This is when significant systemic changes occur over time in a way that makes them extremely difficult for humans to perceive. 'New normals' are established which are experienced as though little to no change has taken place.

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YQxA TIL: Jimmy Carter installed 32 solar panels on the White House roof. When Ronald Reagan took office, one of his first actions was to have the panels, which his chief-of-staff allegedly said Reagan felt were “just a joke,” removed.
MeQ7B TIL that Clement Vallandigham, a defense lawyer in a murder trial accidentally shot himself and died while reenacting the possibility of a victim accidentally shooting and killing themselves instead of his client. The defendant was then set free.
9wEDm TIL that Charles Barbier invented "night writing," a raised-dot writing system for the blind in 1815 years before Louis Braille adapted and refined it into the system we use today. Despite being mostly forgotten, Barbier laid the foundation for tactile literacy.
KOV7G TIL about ATLAS-I, aka Trestle, the world's largest structure made entirely of wood, glue laminate, wooden bolts/nuts and sufficient to support a fully loaded B-52 bomber (for elevated EMP testing) 1,000 ft long, 125 ft (about 12 stories) tall, and constructed of 6.5 million board-feet of lumber.
mxQKE TIL that if a diesel engine can draw fuel from an unintended source, like excess combustible gas that is in the air, it will have a runaway and experience overspeeding at RPMs of up to 10X the engines rated capacity.