Recent comments in /f/todayilearned

Landlubber77 t1_j6himhb wrote

Reply to comment by DAT_DROP in TIL that World War One flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker became a long-time head of Eastern Air Lines and survived well into the 1970s by DAT_DROP

We can chop this up however we want but it always goes back to the fact that the guy lived until he was 82. That's not "shocking." Yes of course WW1 was a long time ago, but 1973 when this guy died was 50 years ago itself. It would be like us hearing someone died today who was born in 1941. That's not shocking lol.

Anyway, like I said to the other guy I was discussing this with, this isn't a big deal and you posted an interesting TIL, I just found the wording sorta funny. He lived "well into the 1970s." First of all, not sure making it to '73 constitutes making it well into the decade, but fine. Secondly, a great number of people who fought in and survived WW1 made it to 1973. You talked about how older Redditors would view this story, my whole thing is how young ones view it. They hear WW1 and think we're talking about a bunch of cavemen riding into battle on the back of an ankylosaurs.

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Novaleah88 t1_j6hiikt wrote

Reply to TIL redwood trees -- growing to heights of 350 feet or more (over 100 meters) -- have roots that go only about ten feet into the ground. by OccludedFug

They make a really big hole when they fall. As a kid my parents house had one of the last big ones inside city limits. They built a whole garden around it, with a neat fountain they built out of a big redwood root system next to is. When it fell it was lucky for everyone nearby because it managed to fall right down the middle of the road, luckily the house at the end across from a T intersection was set back from the road because it went into their yard too. I shoulda mentioned that the garden and tree were only about 4 feet from where my dad parked his little pickup. The truck was close enough that it tipped over into the hole and the neighbors came to watch. It only actually destroyed some fences and cars and minor damage to houses from branches. We were incredibly lucky and they shouldn’t be kept inside city limits. But it was pretty awesome as a kid to see that happen, and get to jump up the street on the giant rounds the fire fighters made before lugging it all away.

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GetsGold t1_j6hdbwa wrote

Reply to comment by efnfen4 in TIL China is bigger than the U.S. in terms of land area. The U.S. is also bigger than Canada in terms of land area. by Mewhenthe4

In other cases, like with area, the actual area doesn't change, just you estimation of it.

With border length however, there is no "actual" length, as the more accurate you measure it, the length will increase and not ever get closer and closer to some specific value.

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partthethird t1_j6harr8 wrote

Reply to TIL of Sloth Moths, unique species of moths that live exclusively in the fur of Sloths. They feed off algae on the sloths fur and secretions from the sloths skin, and even use sloth dung as a part of their reproductive process. by cjm81499

And when this colony ship they've been cultivating finally reaches its destination, there'll be an entire sloth moth civilisation already established, because the sloth moths back home invented a faster sloth

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