› added 6 years ago

306

TIL about the McDonalds in Sedona, AZ. Because of council restrictions, the famous golden arches are blue, as to not interfere with the red colour of the mountains nearby.

b615N TIL Rabies causes an intense fear of water and induces panic in those offered liquids due to excruciatingly painful muscle spasms that occur when attempting to swallow. This is thought to be the virus's way of "hacking" the brain to encourage its own spread to others via the host's saliva.
90KB TIL there are “heater bees” who keep their body temperatures 10 degrees hotter than other bees in the colony to keep the hive warm. They also can vary the temperature around developing pupae to determine what kind of honey bee they will become: either forager bees or “house keeper” bees.
wLXJ8 TIL all Porsche cars have the ignition on the left side of the steering-wheel. This comes from an idea at the 24 Hours of Le Mans race when drivers had to start the car themselves, this way the driver could start the car with his left hand while put it in gear with his right hand and start faster.
J5pB TIL of Harvard Observatory astronomer Henrietta Swan Leavitt; given the boring job of examining the luminosity of stars in thousands of photos, she discovered how to measure the distance between the Earth and faraway galaxies. At the time, she was not allowed to operate Harvard’s telescope.
KrWR TIL that from 2004 to 2011, American and American-trained Iraqi troops repeatedly encountered, and on at least six occasions were wounded by, chemical weapons remaining from years earlier in Saddam Hussein’s rule.