todayilearned
- til - hexagons are the basis of the human visual system and the brain’s navigation system
not sure why i found this fascinating. i was working a geospatial mapping project and stumbled on this tangent
- TIL: The Canadian shield is in fact not an item but a region in Canada that is mostly rock
The Canadian Shield (French: Bouclier canadien [buklje kanadjɛ̃]), also called the Laurentian Shield or the Laurentian Plateau, is a geologic shield, a large area of exposed Precambrian igneous and high-grade metamorphic rocks. It forms the North American Craton (or Laurentia), the ancient geologic core of the North American continent. Glaciation has left the area with only a thin layer of soil, through which exposures of igneous bedrock resulting from its long volcanic history are frequently visible. As a deep, common, joined bedrock region in eastern and central Canada, the shield stretches north from the Great Lakes to the Arctic Ocean, covering over half of Canada and most of Greenland; it also extends south into the northern reaches of the continental United States. Geographical extent The Canadian Shield is a physiographic division comprising...
- [TIL] Soil did not exist before Cenozoic period (the period since the Dinosaur mass extinction event)
> Little of the soil of planet Earth is older than the Pleistocene and none is older than the Cenozoic, although fossilized soils are preserved from as far back as the Archean.
- TIL there's a company in Indiana that makes custom vinyl records for bands that contain things like liquid and sand (and even weirder stuff) inside two sides of a transparent playable 33 1/3 disc.romanusrecords.com Romanus Custom Vinyl MFG
ROMANUS CUSTOM VINYL MFG. From Fall Out Boy, Motley Crue, Alice & Chains, to Young Thug or awesome underground bands we are here to add something unique to your release. We are your one stop shop for custom built vinyl orders. We offer a array of proprietary in house custom designs that were onc...
- TIL the S.S. Minnow had an eighth passenger.
Nobody mourned.
Also, why am I the only person who ever learns anything around here?
- TIL people used to clean their clothes with gasoline as a form of 'dry cleaning.' And yes, lots of people died.
That is not the only warning film not to do it because people were dying all the time: https://archive.org/details/more_dangerous_then_dynamite
Some headlines of people making the worst mistake of their shortened lives:
https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=RMD19330315-01.2.175&e=-------en-20--1--img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA--------0------
https://www.newspapers.com/article/wilkes-barre-times-leader-explosion-caus/13045180/
https://post-gazette.newspapers.com/article/the-pittsburgh-press-gasoline-caused-two/91356754/
Occasionally, they got lucky and survived.
https://www.newspapers.com/article/hot-springs-weekly-star-cleaning-clothes/124927252/
https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2017/aug/29/100-years-ago-today-in-spokane-woman-using-gasolin/
- TIL in 2023, Israel announced an amazing archaeological discovery, only to announce a few days later that it was created by a scholar showing students what it would have looked like if it existed.apnews.com Israel says inscription in Persian pottery shard inauthentic
Israel has acknowledged that an inscription in clay found in the country’s south bearing the name of Darius the Great, ruler of the ancient Persian Empire, was not authentic.
- TIL about Crabbie, the world's largest (fake) horseshoe crab. It has a very weird history.www.atlasobscura.com The World's Largest Horseshoe Crab
How did this massive marine arthropod make its way to landlocked Ohio?
> This gigantic horseshoe crab has migrated from a harbor in Baltimore, Maryland, to dry land in Ohio. This massive piece of art has had four homes over the last 25 years. The first was in Baltimore, the second in a creationist museum in Kentucky, the third outside a church in Blanchester, Ohio, and now in Hillsboro. > >Known affectionately as “Crabbie,” the fiberglass arthropod measures 67 feet long, 28 feet wide, and 12 feet high (with an even longer tail that sticks up behind the structure). It was built in 1995 for an attraction in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. The structure is open on the inside, with room for dozens of people, and it was initially used as a space for teaching about the Chesapeake Bay’s marine life at the Columbus Center. Videos of sharks hunting were shown inside the huge shell. > >After it was purchased at a bankruptcy sale, the horseshoe crab moved to the Midwest where it spent time at two churches. In 2008, daredevil Gene Sullivan jumped over the horseshoe crab and through a flaming “Gates of Hell” as part of his gospel ministry stunt program, Jump for Jesus. > >In 2015, the church put Crabbie up for sale. It was purchased by a family in Hillsboro, Ohio, who moved it to their property and set it up as a roadside attraction, where it remains to this day.
More on Gene Sullivan: https://www.vice.com/en/article/4wb54d/the-evangelical-evel-knievel-511
Crabbie as it was delivered to its current Hillsboro location: !
Crabbie has since been given a new coat of paint:
This is the best picture I can find showing the underside. Clearly whatever building structure was beneath it to project the shark video is gone.
- For centuries, the only way to get purple dye in Europe was by harvesting tens of thousands of murex snails from the ocean. TIL the Mayans discovered this independentlywww.mayaincaaztec.com Dyes — MayaIncaAztec.com
All three, the Maya, Inca, and Aztec used the tiny coccid insect to produce the brilliant color of crimson. This color dye, which is called cochineal, became an important trade item between the New World and Europe. It became so valuable in the New World that only gold and silver were worth more. Th
> They also produced the color purple or lavender from the murex mollusks that were found on the seacoast. Dye makers rubbed two of the mollusks together in order to extract the dye.
That sounds simple enough, but it also involved some real chemistry:
https://hal.science/hal-03202592/document
Purple was one of the most expensive and difficult dyes to acquire and process. 1 gram takes 10,000 snails. In Europe, it was solely used for kings.
- TIL Not only did Marvel Comics do radio drama adaptations of early Fantastic Four comics in 1975, The Human Torch was played by a young Bill Murray!archive.org Fantastic Four-10 episodes : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
10 episodes of marvel comics fantastic four radio show
Stan Lee himself narrates.
They're extremely cheesy, but so were early FF comics.
- Ballistics evidence not reliable nor based on science, Maryland Supreme Court sayswww.wusa9.com Ballistics evidence not reliable, Maryland Supreme Court says
The "DNA of a gun" used to convict the DC Snipers and hundreds of others doesn't meet scientific standards, judges rule.
- TIL that in The International Classification of Diseases (ICD) they also defined code for lack of food, lack of water, and destitutionicd.who.int ICD-10 Version:2019
ICD-10 Online contains the ICD-10 (International Classification of Diseases 10th Revision)
- TIL: Mr. Potato Head was the first toy to be advertised on TVwww.cgaa.org What Was the First Toy Advertised on Tv? [Comprehensive Answer] - CGAA
Wondering What Was the First Toy Advertised on Tv? Here is the most accurate and comprehensive answer to the question. Read now
![What Was the First Toy Advertised on Tv? [Comprehensive Answer] - CGAA](https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/c8cf1c08-535b-4fb0-b5dd-dbd2795bc224.jpeg?format=webp&thumbnail=256)
- TIL a Black community was displaced to build Central Park
Founded in 1825, Seneca Village was once home to nearly 200 residents.
Some villagers were German and Irish American.
But most of them were Black
By 1855, nearly half of them owned their own homes. They had a school, churches, gardens and voting rights because they owned land.
But in 1857, Seneca Village was torn down when the city decided it wanted to create a park.
Villagers were essentially forced to leave.
Today, researchers are trying to figure out where they went and locate their descendants.
A lot of the original landscape can still be seen in the park today.
It stretches from 82nd Street to 89th Street and Central Park West.
“We know that they used some of the stone that you see out there now to build their houses,” Marie Warsh, a historian with the Central Park Conservancy, told NBC New York.
Signs erected by the Central Park Conservancy help to commemorate and tell the story of the village and its vibrant community.
“You can really start to imagine what it may have looked like,” said Warsh.
Talks to figure out a permanent way to commemorate Seneca Village, which is not a historical landmark, are ongoing.
Those interested in learning more about the history of Seneca Village can visit the MET's "Before Yesterday We Could Fly: An Afrofuturist Period Room" exhibition or www.centralparknyc.org.
- TIL that following the Roman departure from Britain (410 CE), systematic construction of paved highways in the UK did not resume until the early 18th century
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/1815113
> >After the Romans departed, systematic construction of paved highways in the United Kingdom did not resume until the early 18th century. The Roman road network remained the only nationally managed highway system within Britain until the establishment of the Ministry of Transport in the early 20th century.
- TIL India still officially recognises 5 sub-national monarchies, known as the 'Kings of Dangs'. They receive payment from the government every year during Holi
> As per the treaty signed in 1842 the British were allowed to use the forests and their natural products against which they had to pay around 3,000 silver coins to the five kings. Currently the kings receive a monthly political pension by the Government of India, which is the main source of their income. This payment is continued even though all privy purses for the Princely states of India were stopped in 1970 since the agreement was between then monarchy of Dangs and the British
- TIL of Cáin Adomnáin, "Europes first human rights treaty". Created in 697 CE, were a set of laws - which kings across Ireland & Scotland agreed to follow - guaranteeing safety of non-combatants in war
>The Cáin Adomnáin, also known as the Lex Innocentium (Law of Innocents), was promulgated amongst a gathering of Irish, Dál Riatan and Pictish notables at the Synod of Birr in 697. It is called the “Geneva Accords” of the ancient Irish and Europe’s first human rights treaty, for its protection of women and non-combatants, extending the Law of Patrick, which protected monks, to civilians. The legal symposium at the Synod of Birr was prompted when Adomnáin had an Aisling dream vision wherein his mother excoriated him for not protecting the women and children of Ireland.
- TIL of the Kingdom of Bailundo, a non-sovereign monarchy located in Angola. Its king was notably deposed in 2021 after being charged of involvement in a murder
>Ekuikui V sometimes dubbed himself as the "king of (all) Ovimbundu". In early 2021, Ekuikui V was sentenced to six years in prison by the Provincial Court of Huambo (TPH) for his implication in a murder in 2017. Ekuikui V had issued a judgment in a traditional court case, finding Jacinto Kamutali Epalangana guilty of killing a child. Following the judgment, Jacinto was beaten to death.
>On the 3 March, 2021, he was ousted from the throne following a meeting of the Angolan Association of Traditional Authorities (ASSAT). Ekuikui V had previously claimed to be the president of ASSAT, despite no election confirming him as such. He was accused of various offences, such as forcing a son of his predecessor, Ekuikui IV, to walk around Bailundo naked. He was also accused of witchcraft, concentration of powers, and illegal sales of land. It was elected at the time that João Kawengo Kasanji would replace Ekuikui V as king, and that he would take the regnal name of Tchingala TChangungu Vangalule Mbulu. Ekuikui refused to accept the decision to remove him from the throne, and denied all of the aforementioned accusations.
>In March 2021, it was announced that Isaac Francisco Lucas Somaquesenje had been installed as king of Bailundo, with the regnal name Tchongolola Tchongonga Ekuikui VI. The enthronement ceremony was attended by the provincial governor and other guests. Part of the ceremony included the newly-appointed king sitting at the entrance of his official residence and collecting a basket containing white cornmeal (omemba). This was then fed to an animal which was later sacrificed. The king later received a sword (ondelia), signifying his traditional power. Tchongolola Tchongonga is a grandson of the former king, Ekuikui IV. He was elected to the throne by the court of Ombala (a council of elders[1]) in May 2021, receiving 153 votes out of a total of 206 voters. João Kawengo Kasanji in contrast, only received 31 votes.
- There's a history of animals being charged for criminal acts
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/1236153
> Would come as surprise to many of the readers just like me. Personally I didn't even know that was a thing!
![Central Park, New York City [OC] - Lemmy.world](https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/050ad724-0e40-4dcf-ab54-f546522ada93.jpeg?format=webp&thumbnail=256)
