› added 9 years ago

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TIL that when Neil deGrasse Tyson first saw the stars come out at the planetarium at 9 years old, he thought it was a hoax. Growing up in the Bronx, he’d never seen the stars before due to light pollution.

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NPMP TIL When it was discovered that Hasbro’s flubber toy was discovered to be toxic they attempted to incinerate the remaining stock (which didn’t work) then attempted to bury it in the ocean (it just floated to the top) and finally buried it under a new parking lot.
N7Z7N TIL one of the last grizzly bears in CA was captured in 1889, brought to San Francisco as a publicity stunt, then spent 22 years on display in a concrete cell in Golden Gate Park. After he died, 1200-lb ‘Monarch’ was stuffed, again put on display, and became the bear depicted on CA’s state flag.
VMXE4 TIL of Charles Henry Turner. He was an African American scientist who earned his PhD in 1907. He discovered that insects could distinguish pitch, that cockroaches can learn by trial and error and that honeybees can see color.
Oo6RX TIL the word quarantine derives from the italian word quaranta, meaning forty - because in times of the Black Death ships had to wait 40 Days outside the port to prove they aren’t infested.
grm8 TIL that Jose M. Hernandez went from migrant worker to astronaut. He’s currently running for congress in California at the urging of the president.