› added 3 years ago

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TIL that between 1998 and 2015, the Defense and Housing and Urban Development departments had reported $21 trillion in "unsupported adjustments". That is, $21 trillion missing in tax payer money; They cannot track it, nor do they know what it was spent on. That's 65,000 lost dollars per American.

r5BM TIL that the largest known fossil spider is only about half the size of its modern relatives. (Meaning that the biggest spiders that exist today might be biggest spiders that have ever existed…)
8mPV TIL Edgar Allen Poe wrote a story about 4 crewman who are lost at sea and turned to eating the cabin boy named Richard Parker, 46 years later, an English Yacht sank and the remaining 4 survivors in a life boat turned to eating the Cabin Boy after he fell ill, also named Richard Parker
0wmDy TIL That the original iPhone’s screen was supposed to be plastic. But Steve Jobs complained that he was getting scratches on his screen. So Corning glass made the screen glass.
R5ax1 TIL Blue eyes do not contain blue pigments. The color comes from structural color, there are small particles suspended within the fibrovasular structure of the stroma that cause blue light to scatter. This is an example of the Tyndall effect.
XEaP6 TIL that live snails need their own train ticket, if you take one on a train in France. According to French law, when taking any animal under 6KG (~13lbs) one must pay 7 Euro (~$7.5) for the ride. Law requires you to stay with your snail and keep it and the other passengers safe for the whole ride.