› added 7 years ago

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TIL Wu Tang Clan member Gza is a science nerd and has spoken at Harvard and hosted a Physics lecture at MIT

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YpPKW TIL: Virtually every country named syphilis after its enemies. The French called it the Neapolitan disease, the English and Italians called it the French disease, Russians called it the Polish disease, Tahitians called it the British disease, and the Japanese called it the Chinese pox.
b6ROp Today I learned that in South Africa the current Cape of Good Hope was called Cape of Storms because no one knew what lay beyond until the Portuguese passed it and the King renamed it.
R7y0w TIL: Bees are actually a democracy. They have debates when choosing a new home and each scout is given an equal platform. The votes end with a unanimous decision as each bee in the colony does its own research to verify the scout claims. The Queen remains impartial throughout the process.
4XA5a TIL that in 1950, to test the potential impact of a biological attack, the US Navy released a supposedly harmless bacteria over San Francisco, hospitalizing several people and killing one.
a8nyy TIL blue whales emit sounds that other whales can hear up to 1,000 miles away.