› added 5 years ago

187

TIL the phrase being on "cloud nine" actually comes from a cloud atlas published in 1896 that divides clouds into 10 basic types, the ninth type being cumulonimbus clouds, the most puffy-looking ones. See A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson, Part V Chapter 17 Into the Troposphere.

Read more cdn.preterhuman.net

via reddit.com

xVr9D TIL of Way Kambas National Park in Lampung Province Sumatra Indonesia. It is home to Sumatran Elephant, Tiger & Rhino, tapir & siamang. In 2016, Way Kambas was formally declared an ASEAN Heritage Park.
Ooaa7 TIL of the "Gates of Hell" in Turkministan. In 1971, a Soviet drilling rig accidently punctured an underground natural gas cavern. To head off a environmental catastrophe, the Soviets set the gas on fire. The crater has been burning continuously for 47 years since.
NXmE TIL that the Library of Congress was able to purchase the personal papers of Carl Sagan because of a financial donation provided by ‘Family Guy’ creator Seth MacFarlane, and that MacFarlane is working on a “Cosmos” follow up project.
9YWXr TIL We don't get all of our drinking water from the ocean because it costs $1-2 dollars per cubic meter (264 gallons) to desalinate ocean water, while only costing 10-20 cents to purify fresh water.
Yp5Jr TIL that spiders use earth’s electric field to fly vast distances in a process called “ballooning”. Charles Darwin first theorized that spiders use electric force to fly in 1832 when he observed the HMS Beagle was covered in webs while at sea.