› added 7 years ago

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TIL that the fungus that turns ants into zombies and eventually sprouts out of them, doesn't control their brain. It's actually builds fabric around their muscles and controls them, leaving the brain healthy and in tact, up until to the moment of death

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v1NEj TIL that Hawaii's first queen's first time running the country was marked by a smallpox outbreak and that the decisive action she took to stop the spread (closing all ports) drew the ire of rich sugarcane plantation owners and eventually lead to the coup that overthrew her.
neR9 TIL that Jim Varney’s (of Earnest Goes somewhere fame) last words to his partner were “Please leave the window open”. He died of lung cancer but did quit after being diagnosed. He also filmed an anti-smoking PSA, in his Earnest character.
y1B8 TIL when Napoleon’s Marshall; Michel Ney was being sentenced to execution after Waterloo, Ney’s lawyer in his defense argued that Ney was now a Prussian and could not be tried by French laws, Ney interrupted him saying, “I am French and I will remain French”. Ney was later executed
x6m7D TIL Thomas Carlyle championed the "Great Man Theory," arguing in the 19th century that "The history of the world is but the biography of great men."
b94Z9 TIL: In 1666, the plague-infested village of Eyam quarantined itself inside a marked circle for 14 months. Neighboring communities left food at the edge of the circle in exchange for disinfected coins. 80% of the people died, but no one crossed the circle.