› added 4 years ago

453

TIL: Stephen Fry had a cocaine addiction

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M707B TIL Ancient Egyptians and Greeks used electric fish to treat arthritis, gout and cephalalgia.
aJy9 TIL in 1946 50 beavers were introduced to Tierra del Fuego, the island at the southernmost tip of South America, in hopes of fostering a fur trade. No such fur trade developed, but the beavers now number over 100,000 and are causing irreparable damage to Patagonia’s forests
l7JBa TIL London's Black Cabs must have sufficient headroom for a 5ft 8in-tall man (1.7m) to sit in the rear seat wearing a top hat.
worY8 TIL the first food ever smuggled into space was a corned beef sandwich. It was smuggled onboard the Gemini III NASA mission on March 23, 1965 by Astronaut John Young to give to fellow astronaut Gus Grissom. Grissom was not scheduled to eat anything during the 4 hour 52 minute orbital mission.
gMpO4 TIL scientists managed to recreate the voice of a 3000-year-old mummified Egyptian priest. They produced a 3D-printed voice box based on a precise scan of his vocal tract, and then used the vocal tract with an artificial larynx sound, synthesising a vowel-like sound reminiscent of a sheep's bleat