› added 11 months ago

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TIL that nearly all of what we see as lightning is the current returning to the cloud from the ground. It appears to be coming from the cloud because it is illuminating the bolts that didn't reach the ground

Read more noaa.gov

via reddit.com

VamG TIL in 2007 a married couple unknowingly cheated with each other online. They set up a date, and were so disappointed with the revelation that they got divorced.
Ob9Y TIL during the Great Smog in London, 1952, visibility was so poor that pedestrians were helped through the streets by the blind.
rYM4 TIL that the FBI helped frame four men for a 1965 murder in order to protect an informant. Two died in prison; the other two served more than 30 years before being exonerated.
a8djJ TIL Tracy Chapman's musical career took off following her appearance at the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute concerts in 1988. Following the second concert, her already successful album, "Tracy Chapman", went from 250,000 copies sold to over 2 millions.
LQygV TIL about a refrigerator in the 1920s co-designed by Albert Einstein for the poor. The Einstein–Szilard or Einstein refrigerator is an absorption refrigerator which has no moving parts, operates at constant pressure, and requires only a heat source to operate.