› added 11 years ago

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TIL We see the colors that we do because that is just about the only spectrum of light that passes through water, the area where eyes first evolved. There hasn’t been any evolutionary reason on land to see any broader spectrum.

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Gg4G TIL that in 1980 a neighbor of John Gotti had the misfortune to kill Gotti’s 12 year old son in a car accident. Before he could move out of the area, he was abducted by several men, then apparently killed and dissolved in acid.
rNLJy TIL Festivus was a holiday created and celebrated by Seinfeld writer Dan O'Keefe's family as far back as 1966. In the O'Keefe family, there was no Festivus pole, but a Festivus clock that was nailed to a wall. When Dan asked his father, "Why a clock?", his father said "That's not for you to know"
16G5O TIL in 1982, Byron Peiss wrote a book called the Secret. In it, there are clues to 12 treasure boxes hidden in various places all around the US and Canada. As of 2022, only 3 of the 12 boxes have ever been found. If a box is discovered, you can exchange it for bragging rights and a precious gem
edvg TIL that Google Maps calculates traffic by tracking how fast Android devices are moving on the road.
7rZRb TIL: When foxes discovered fairy penguins on a small Australian island, they nearly wiped the colony out. Swampy Marsh, a chicken farmer, began sending Maremma dogs to protect the birds. Over the next 10 years not a single penguin was killed by a fox.