› added 10 years ago

89

TIL the ancient Greeks used the electrogenic properties of electric rays to numb the pain of childbirth and operations.

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40na TIL: From having lived and worked in China, President Herbert Hoover and his wife were fluent in Mandarin Chinese, and would frequently have conversations in the language to prevent their staff from eavesdropping.
N7O58 TIL that the will of Who bassist John Entwistle, who died in 2002 after taking cocaine with a stripper in a Las Vegas hotel, divided his estate between his mother, son and girlfriend. A month after receiving an inheritance of ca £1million, Lisa Pritchett-Johnson died of a suspected drug overdose.
XEbEP Today I learned of guitarist Dave Mustaine who was fired from his band for drug abuse, alcoholism, and aggressive behavior. He went on to form his own band, Megadeth, which would go on to sell 25 million albums worldwide. The band that fired him? Metallica.
LkMwZ TIL that the brain doesn't firmly distinguish between physical pain and intense emotional pain. So the same brain networks that are activated when you're burned by hot coffee also light up when you think about an ex who dumped you.
JYDbm TIL that Francis Hong Yong-ho, the last Catholic Bishop of Pyongyang, was imprisoned in 1949 by Kim Il-sung's regime and disappeared. Vatican documents listed him as the Bishop until 2013, when they finally acknowledged his death.