Recent comments in /f/todayilearned

VisualImportance5837 t1_jd4toh3 wrote

Reply to comment by Paperdiego in TIL A coal seam in Australia is believed to have been burning for 6,000 years, making it the oldest coal fire. The site's name is Mount Wingen but is commonly called Burning Mountain and the fire is traveling south 1m per year discoloring the ground as it goes. by jamescookenotthatone

Cracks and crevices in the ground allow air in. Not very much air - the coal is just barely alight, just barely smouldering, like charcoal and a barbeque.

Normally, coal would go out with so little air. However, it's trapped deep underground and the heat can't escape. So, even just smouldering, with the heat being trapped, will keep the fire alight.

10

cunninglinguist6 t1_jd4rjee wrote

Reply to comment by philfix in TIL A coal seam in Australia is believed to have been burning for 6,000 years, making it the oldest coal fire. The site's name is Mount Wingen but is commonly called Burning Mountain and the fire is traveling south 1m per year discoloring the ground as it goes. by jamescookenotthatone

Thats why its burning for so long its just smoldering if its good material even a small bit can smolder for very long time look up amadou tinder fungus.

7

Landlubber77 t1_jd4qa41 wrote

Reply to comment by tossinthisshit1 in TIL A coal seam in Australia is believed to have been burning for 6,000 years, making it the oldest coal fire. The site's name is Mount Wingen but is commonly called Burning Mountain and the fire is traveling south 1m per year discoloring the ground as it goes. by jamescookenotthatone

Fantastic guide.

When I was a kid I used to think the line "trouble in the Suez!" was "trouble in the sewers!" because I was a child and didn't know what the Suez was. Around the same exact time, I walked out into the living room while my mom was watching IT and it was the part where Pennywise was trying to lure Georgie down into the sewer. So I spent an unreasonable amount of time in 1990-'91 thinking there was some epidemic of child-murderers lurking in the sewers.

34

Jamber_Jamber t1_jd4pid5 wrote

Reply to TIL the term "death row" comes from an assassination attempt on FDR. The shooter Giuseppe Zangara was sentenced to death, but there was already a convict awaiting execution, and FL law forbade them from sharing cells. A second cell was built, turning the "death cell" into the first "death row." by AdmiralAkbar1

I'm mostly surprised there was never more than 1 person awaiting execution in the fedeal prison system in the US until FDR

31

shalafi71 t1_jd4otm9 wrote

Reply to comment by Prinzka in TIL A coal seam in Australia is believed to have been burning for 6,000 years, making it the oldest coal fire. The site's name is Mount Wingen but is commonly called Burning Mountain and the fire is traveling south 1m per year discoloring the ground as it goes. by jamescookenotthatone

What /u/Vlacas12 means is this; There are $X tons of CO2 released naturally. There are $Y tons of CO2 released due to human activity.

$X isn't such a big deal, taken apart from $Y, because nature recycles it. Add in $Y, which is more than nature can make use of, that's a big deal.

Does that makes sense? OP is breaking it down, you're taking a total approach. One can't say either view is wrong.

2

arbivark t1_jd4ofny wrote

Reply to comment by Armthedillos5 in TIL Marilyn Monroe's likeness does not have any post-mortem protection as she was domiciled in New York at the time of her death and there are no federal publicity rights. by AudibleNod

Indiana is one of those, so there is an indiana company that manages rights for a number of dead celebrites. I was a local counsel once for a case where we beat them by showing they had no jurisdiction over a canadian-based website.

1

FrightenedOfSpoons t1_jd4lorx wrote

Reply to TIL A coal seam in Australia is believed to have been burning for 6,000 years, making it the oldest coal fire. The site's name is Mount Wingen but is commonly called Burning Mountain and the fire is traveling south 1m per year discoloring the ground as it goes. by jamescookenotthatone

I remember going there quite some years ago, you could see the path the fire had taken, where the trees had died and the ground had subsided.

4

rsclient t1_jd4krvj wrote

Reply to comment by that_other_goat in TIL that the Incans genetically modified and hybridized crops such as potatoes at sites like the Moray Terrace. by A_Generic_White_Guy

Well, reading your first sentence certainly gives the impression that you're not blaming the British:

> The Irish famines origins are from Catholicism, Irish laws of inheritance and a limited gene pool of potatoes

If your statement is true, we can confidently say that in Europe there are more famines in catholic countries than in protestant ones. Looking at the data, there are essentially no famous famines in spain, italy, or france -- which rather limits the value of assigning blame to being catholic.

1