› added 5 months ago

18

TIL about the May 18,1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, which was the most disastrous volcanic eruption to occur in the contiguous United States since the much smaller 1915 eruption of Lassen Peak in California.

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via reddit.com

M9B7 TIL of Bog Butter, animal fat that has been stored in North European swamps for thousands of years and is still edible.
XEoA8 TIL there is a gold fire hydrant in San Francisco that is said to have been the only functioning hydrant and is credited with saving the historic Mission District neighborhood during the 1906 quake. It is Painted with a fresh coat of gold paint each April 18
LE4Q TIL IKEA Let Loose a Herd of 100 Cats Into Store to “See What Happens”
XE4mr TIL that the facial expressions we make are hardwired into our brains rather than learned during life. After comparing the expressions of sighted and blind athletes at the 2004 Olympic games, researchers concluded that both competitors showed or controlled their expressions in exactly the same way.
4XAxX TIL that scientists put horses in black-and-white striped costumes to try and find out why zebras are stripy. It seems that the stripes make flies less likely to land on them.