Recent comments in /f/todayilearned
No_Flounder_9859 t1_j6igzb6 wrote
Reply to TIL of Clement Vallandigham, a lawyer and congressman during the Civil War. The Union deported him for supporting the Confederacy. After the war, he died by accidentally shooting himself during a murder trial while trying to show the murder weapon could have misfired. His client got off as a result by MikiLove
Damn. Wouldn’t it have been sufficient to show that without the ball in the weapon???
[deleted] t1_j6igvs6 wrote
Reply to TIL of Clement Vallandigham, a lawyer and congressman during the Civil War. The Union deported him for supporting the Confederacy. After the war, he died by accidentally shooting himself during a murder trial while trying to show the murder weapon could have misfired. His client got off as a result by MikiLove
[deleted]
Pfhoenix t1_j6igb9h wrote
lightsdevil OP t1_j6ig76p wrote
Reply to comment by redeyedplunk in TIL there are three species of elephants, not two. African elephants are broken up into 2 species, Forest and Bush. by lightsdevil
I think forest = trees, and bushes = shrubland.
cranial_prolapse420 t1_j6ig6c7 wrote
Reply to comment by SamtheCossack in TIL that sperm whales are the loudest animal on Earth, and their clicks can literally kill you with sound by g1ucose
Decibles are definitely used for measuring sound in a radius (or in this case, a free field). I'm curious to hear why you think it isn't a good way of measuring SPL, and which units you would use instead?
(I agree with everything else you said.)
[deleted] t1_j6ig5oj wrote
wilhelm_dafoe t1_j6ifsd9 wrote
Reply to TIL of Clement Vallandigham, a lawyer and congressman during the Civil War. The Union deported him for supporting the Confederacy. After the war, he died by accidentally shooting himself during a murder trial while trying to show the murder weapon could have misfired. His client got off as a result by MikiLove
That's dedication to his client right there.
kuku-kukuku t1_j6ifpnc wrote
Reply to comment by Auslanderjack in TIL that Tony Danza and Tupac Shakur were friends and that they wrote letters back and forth while Tupac was in prison. by Knoblord_McCheese
Jack Gilardi is ten feet tall
Landlubber77 t1_j6ifp42 wrote
Reply to TIL of Clement Vallandigham, a lawyer and congressman during the Civil War. The Union deported him for supporting the Confederacy. After the war, he died by accidentally shooting himself during a murder trial while trying to show the murder weapon could have misfired. His client got off as a result by MikiLove
Thank god the victim didn't die of spontaneous human combustion, that would've been a much harder feat to pull off in court.
cranial_prolapse420 t1_j6ifkj5 wrote
Reply to comment by CygnusX-1-2112b in TIL that sperm whales are the loudest animal on Earth, and their clicks can literally kill you with sound by g1ucose
Nemo 2: Bukkake Boogaloo
thirdwheelforever OP t1_j6iferv wrote
crackeddagger t1_j6ifao1 wrote
Reply to TIL that Tony Danza and Tupac Shakur were friends and that they wrote letters back and forth while Tupac was in prison. by Knoblord_McCheese
Tupac by all accounts was an incredibly smart man with a diversity of interests and talents. All of Tony Danza's characters were named "Tony" because he wouldn't respond to other names in scenes. What did they possibly talk about??????????
InsuranceToTheRescue t1_j6if4o0 wrote
Reply to comment by outerproduct in TIL that sperm whales are the loudest animal on Earth, and their clicks can literally kill you with sound by g1ucose
25 minutes well spent.
Dyzerio t1_j6if45w wrote
Reply to comment by Consistent_Ad_4828 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
!remind me 20 years on that desertification
lightsdevil OP t1_j6ietg1 wrote
Reply to comment by moistdepth69 in TIL there are three species of elephants, not two. African elephants are broken up into 2 species, Forest and Bush. by lightsdevil
Well tbf it was a Selects
InMyDreamsWithYou_ t1_j6iektj wrote
WelcomeScary4270 t1_j6iefar wrote
Reply to comment by Buck_Thorn in TIL Margarine was originally named oleomargarine from Latin for oleum (olive oil) and Greek margarite ("pearl", indicating luster). by joshemerson
You must be ancient. I googled it and the only images are old-timey handdrawn adverts.
Mantaur4HOF t1_j6ie8go wrote
Reply to TIL that sperm whales are the loudest animal on Earth, and their clicks can literally kill you with sound by g1ucose
Much like watching an action scene on Netflix
pzerr t1_j6idwq2 wrote
Reply to comment by Rattus375 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
You were just asking why people were upset. Sorry if that upset you.
cookiemonster247 t1_j6idljo wrote
Reply to comment by oldmancornelious in TIL: Between 800 and 1349 AD, the Colosseum was converted into a residential apartment building by Serath4
America has been a country for 85 years longer than Italy. Not sure what that has to do with anything though.
Taurus-Littrow t1_j6id92w wrote
Reply to comment by pzerr 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
Yankees, just wait and see how valuable water is.
Rattus375 t1_j6id7k0 wrote
Reply to comment by pzerr 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
Well that's just a moronic take that's just trying to be divisive for no good reason. Objectively, canada has far less useful and valuable land than the US does. There's a reason the majority of the population lives right on the border. Having more lakes isn't inherently good or bad as long as it doesn't tend too far towards either extreme and this says absolutely nothing about the countries listed other than their land area
Informal_Ad3771 t1_j6id39y wrote
Reply to comment by OssiansFolly in TIL that Tony Danza and Tupac Shakur were friends and that they wrote letters back and forth while Tupac was in prison. by Knoblord_McCheese
Not admission of guilt but indication of assholism. Nas and Wu-Tang didn't find it necessary to write misogynistic lyrics. Thug life forever though! Peace.
nim_opet t1_j6iczs7 wrote
Reply to comment by frantafranta in TIL: Between 800 and 1349 AD, the Colosseum was converted into a residential apartment building by Serath4
Came here to say this. I love stopping by just to admire that people are still living there
SamtheCossack t1_j6ih8j5 wrote
Reply to comment by cranial_prolapse420 in TIL that sperm whales are the loudest animal on Earth, and their clicks can literally kill you with sound by g1ucose
Mostly because it is in water.
Trying to compare decibels in air to decibels in water is not really a useful measurement of anything, since the nature of sound changes dramatically in different materials. Also, directed sound, like this, would only hit the peak amplitude in the exact center of the cone, and would drop off rapidly towards the edges, as opposed to a radial effect like an explosion, where it would be consistent across a wide front. This enables much higher amplitudes, but in an extremely small area, with a lot less energy overall.
So yeah, for a lot of reasons, saying gunshots are ~150 decibels, and Sperm Whales can hit 230 decibels is technically accurate, but not really what it sounds like. For instance, a pistol shrimp can hit ~220 decibels, but is almost completely harmless to anything bigger than a minnow, because it has such a short duration, and tiny scale.