› added 10 years ago

362

TIL The world’s most venomous spiders are the Brazilian wandering spiders which has the most active neurotoxic venom of any living spider. These large and highly aggressive creatures often enter human dwellings and hide in clothing or shoes. When disturbed they bite furiously several times

Z8gPQ TIL about the poem, 'To a Mouse'. Written by Robert Burns in 1785, it is dedicated as an apology to a "mousie" whose nest he had turned over whilst ploughing a field, conveying his guilt at its happening.
5VG99 TIL Part of N.Machiavelli's diplomatic mission to Cesare Borgia included sending intel back to his government, even down to Borgia's personal habits. He noticed that he had inhuman energy and could go several nights working sleepless but occasionaly would "fall to his bed" and refuse to see anyone
kJY7 TIL Andrew Carnegie would be worth a net total of $298.3 billion dollars in today’s currency, and believed that it was the rich’s duty to distribute their wealth to benevolent causes. He himself gave more than 4 billion away to charities and funded over 3,000 libraries.
nYAd TIL that the astronauts of Apollo 15 couldn’t get life insurance, so they took stamps to the moon to sell when they returned so their families would have a safety net in case the landing went wrong, they were later caught and forced out of the astronaut program.
4Y6o TIL that the Wachowskis asked Warner Bros. for $80 million to make The Matrix but only got $10 million approved, so they decided to spend all of that money on the opening sequence. They showed it to the Warner executives who were so impressed that they gave them their original budget.