› added 2 months ago

13

TIL that a beetle genus had the name Platypus first, and got it 7 years years before the duck bill platypus was classified, which is why its genus doesn’t have the name platypus in it.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

J1pwj TIL Keanu Reeves has a group of fungicidal compounds named after him, because the scientists who isolated the compound group described their deadliness toward mold as being comparable to the deadliness of Reeves' movie roles.
R7749 TIL that Swedish researchers found a 5 percent increase in the risk of heart attacks right after Daylight Saving Time began, along with an increase in traffic accidents, workplace injuries and suicide rates.
JYg4Q TIL that despite having a heart condition and arthritis that forced him to use a cane, Theodore Roosevelt Jr. led the first wave of landings at Utah Beach on D-Day, becoming the only general to land with his soldiers that day.
kOr91 TIL that modern football is descended from "medieval football" in which opposing teams would attempt to drag an inflated pig's bladder to markers at each end of a town by any means necessary "as long as it did not lead to manslaughter or murder."
g91W TIL in 1625 English officers called off an invasion of Spain after their soldiers stopped off at a local winery and got hammered