Wiki-Dose

The Congo forest is home to the okapi, African forest elephant, pygmy hippopotamus, bongo (antelope), chimpanzee, bonobo and the Congo peafowl. Its apex predator is the Leopard, which are larger than their savannah counterparts due to lack of competition from other large predators. The basin is home to the endangered western lowland gorilla. In 2010, the United Nations Environment Programme warned that gorillas could be extinct from the greater Congo Basin in a matter of 15 years.

The Congo Basin is the largest forest in Africa. More than 10,000 plant species can be found in and around the forest.[10] The humid forests cover 1.6 million km².[4] The Congo Basin is an important source of African teak, used for building furniture and flooring. An estimated 40 million people depend on these woodlands, surviving on traditional livelihoods.

At a global level, Congo's forests act as the planet's second lung, counterpart to the rapidly dwindling Amazon. They are a huge "carbon sink", trapping carbon that could otherwise remain carbon dioxide. The Congo Basin holds roughly 8% of the world's forest-based carbon. If these woodlands are deforested, the carbon they trap will be released into the atmosphere. Predictions for future unabated deforestation estimate that by 2050 activities in the DRC will release roughly the same amount of carbon dioxide as the United Kingdom has emitted over the last 60 years. A 2013 study by British scientists showed that deforestation in the Congo Basin rainforest was slowing down.[18] In 2017, British scientists discovered that peatlands in the Cuvette Centrale, which cover a total of 145,500 sq km, contain 30 billion tonnes of carbon, or 20 years of U.S. fossil fuel emissions.[19][20] In 2021, the deforestation rate of the Congolese rainforest increased by 5%.[21]

An early example of a non-binary person!

"After suffering a severe illness in 1776, the Friend claimed to have died and been reanimated as a genderless evangelist named the Public Universal Friend, and afterward shunned both birth name and gendered pronouns."

The Franceville Basin is a 1.6–2.1 billion year old sedimentary basin in Gabon. It contains unmetamorphosed sediments.[1] It is notable for containing the Francevillian Biota, which are possibly the oldest multicellular life known. A natural fission reactor formed there about 1.8 - 2.1 billion years ago.[2]

termite-eating hyena

The ecosystems found within the park include rainforest, dry forest,[3] shrublands and savanna.[4] The mountains are home to around 50 known species of orchids, and botanists studying the area have identified more than 2,400 other species of plants. Of those, over 400 can also be found in the Orinoquía subregions. The plants in the Macarena have even less overlap with the 8,000 species in the Amazon subregions.[5]

The ecosystem's fauna includes anteaters, jaguars, cougars, deer, 8 species of monkeys, 500 species of birds including the gray-legged tinamou,[2] 1,200 species of insects and 100 species of reptiles.

The only known instance of a naturally occurring fission reaction was discovered at the Oklo mine in the 1970’s. A discrepancy in the ^235^U concentrations had to be explained to ensure that none of the uranium was being diverted for weapons production.

Cattle ranching in the Brazilian Amazon has been identified as the primary cause of deforestation,[5] accounting for about 80% of all deforestation in the region.[6][7] This makes it the world's largest single driver of deforestation, contributing to approximately 14% of the global annual deforestation.[8] Government tax revenue has subsidized much of the agricultural activity leading to deforestation.[9] By 1995, 70% of previously forested land in the Amazon and 91% of land deforested since 1970 had been converted for cattle ranching.[10] The remaining deforestation primarily results from small-scale subsistence agriculture[11] and mechanized cropland producing crops such as soy and palm.[12] In 2011, soy bean farming was estimated to account for around 15% of deforestation in the Amazon.[13]

Thaddäus Haenke was a badass botanist who worked around the turn of the 19th century. He is responsible for bringing some of the earliest specimens and descriptions of the flora of the Pacific basin to Europe.

Why a badass? His journey to Cadiz arrived late, so he missed the expedition's sailing for Montevideo. Go home? Nah, he caught another ship, which wrecked off the coast of South America. He swims to shore and makes his way to meet the expedition, but it has left without him again. So this guy proceeds overland, crossing the Andes, collecting specimens and descriptions along the way. On reaching Valparaiso he rejoined the expedition almost 9 months after its departure from Cadiz. They explored the Pacific basin as far north as Alaska, and onward to Philippine archipelago, Australia and New Zealand.

An early sex education pamphlet that caused the person to have to flee the US.

Feels relevant today unfortunately...

Of all of the random village wikipedias I've come across, this one is actually surprisingly detailed. I can't remember any other I've seen that includes the racial makeup of the village.

The article is about an old building material that was popular in the 1930s-1950s. It discusses the pro's of the building material and why it became popular but never actually discusses what caused it to fall out of fashion.

I'd be really interested to learn what came out that managed to beat it on the market and what specifically caused that to happen.

Realistically it probably boils down to money in the end anyway.