› added 3 months ago

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TIL the first animals to receive formal scientific names were spiders. Carl Alexander Clerck published 'Svenska Spindlar' (Swedish Spiders) in 1757, becoming the first person to consistently apply Linnaean binomial nomenclature to animals.

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xLl5 TIL that bread becomes stale not because it dries out, but because its starches degelatinize and crystalize, creating a hard, leathery texture.
1Kpd TIL the Pyramids were ordered to be disassembled and their blocks used to build dams on the Nile. The chief architect personally opposed, but knew he’d be replaced if he defied orders. So he prepared a false cost analysis showing that freshly quarried stone would cost less: thus saving the Pyramids.
8ByK TIL there was a group of Jewish assassins who hunted Nazi war criminals after WWII
XYb6 TIL there is a galaxy-eating fireball 3 MILLION lightyears in diameter and hotter than the center of our Sun out there.
YRjP TIL there is a school in Tracy, CA named Millenium High School. They’re mascot is the Falcon. They are the Millenium Falcons.