› added 5 years ago

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TIL that the US's National Weather Service has a computer model to predict storm surges due to hurricanes called the Sea, Lake and Overland Surges from Hurricanes model, or SLOSH.

Read more nhc.noaa.gov

via reddit.com

j6Z6Q TIL In the early 1980s, three species of Gyps vultures (the white-rumped vulture, the long-billed vulture and the slender-billed vulture) had a combined estimated population of 40 million in South Asia, but as of 2017, the total population numbered only 19,000 (6,000, 12,000, and 1,000 respectively)
Lv99 TIL when working on “I Am Legend,” Will Smith got so attached to his co-star (Abbey the dog), he asked the owner can he buy her. The owner refused.
QJ0Lk TIL that Niccolò Paganini was so talented at violin that people believed he had sold his soul to the devil. This idea was believed so intently that after Paganini died in 1840, priests refused to bury his body near a Church.
VMDyQ TIL of the HMS Cockchafer, a British gunboat involved in the Wanhsien Incident. Chinese soldiers tried to seize British merchant ships as compensation for a boat accidentally sunk by a British ship and the Cockchafer intervened; the Cockchafer killed over 1000 Chinese and destroyed 1000 buildings.
D1N6Y TIL there's a zoo in the Philippines that will let patrons get a massage by Burmese Pythons. The massage consist of a person lying down while they're covered by four Pythons. One of the rule visitors must follow is to not shout as Pythons could get hostile when they feel the vibrations.