› added 6 years ago

95

TIL that the parents of Cliff Burton, Metallica bassist killed in a bus crash in 1986 at the age of 24, have been quietly donating his royalties to the music program of his former high school ever since.

mx1dE If it’s a particularly contagious virus, it would spread across the planet in a year. “If it starts in New York, it’s going to be in London certainly within a week,” says Ira Longini, a biostatistician at the University of Washington and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle who uses computer models to analyze how viruses globe-trot. “And from there, it will quickly travel to the rest of North America and Europe.” For Longini’s computer forecasts to become reality, though, certain conditions would need to be met.
B5Dx TIL that George Orwell, author of 1984 and Animal Farm among others, was a Spanish Civil War veteran. He served with the Workers’ Party of Marxist Unification, an anti-Stalinist communist international brigade fighting for the Loyalist (Republican) faction.
6EExX A few transplants out of the 28,000 performed every year involve the same organ spending time in more than two bodies. The most common scenario arises when a patient in the late stages of a disease receives a new liver or kidney as a last-ditch effort to keep him alive. If he dies shortly after, and the new organ wasn't the cause, re-transplanting may be an option.
X4XE TIL that the honey badger and the honeyguide bird share a symbiotic relationship in which the bird guides the badger to nearby beehives. The badger will then break open the beehive and allow the bird to share in the booty.
1794 TIL an episode of Star Trek The Next Generation was banned in Ireland and the UK because it referenced how Ireland was unified in 2024 after a successful terrorist campaign