› added 4 years ago

135

TIL about the "Curse of the 9th." Beethoven, Schubert, Bruckner, & Dvorak died after writing their 9th symphony, so Mahler believed the 9th symphony was destined to be a his last. Although afraid to write his 9th, he eventually did & died before being able to complete his 10th fulfilling the curse.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

grKx9 TIL, Fermented elephant coffee, also known as Black Ivory Coffee, is a rare and expensive coffee that is made by feeding Arabica coffee cherries to elephants to ferment in their digestive systems... and collecting the Poo...
JLe8 TIL that due to human efforts, the ozone layer will recover to 1980 levels by 2050, and be fully repaired by 2070.
E1rvV TIL that the Bicycle playing card company made decks of cards and gave them to the prisoners of war in Germany with hidden escape routes revealed when the cards were soaked in water as Christmas presents.
r8rd TIL that one of the oldest chess strategy books, from 1561, recommends playing with your back to the sun to blind your opponent. If playing at night by a fire, it advises you to cast a shadow over the board with your hand, so your opponent “will not be able to see where to play his pieces.”
KYAN4 TIL In the 1980s, DeCasper studied whether fetuses could hear mothers’ reading. In several months, infants were tested to choose recordings with different stories to listen to. Surprisingly, but most of children chose to listen to the stories that their mothers had read to them prenatally