› added 4 months ago

120

TIL the phrase “growing the beard” describes when a show improves in quality. It comes from Star Trek: The Next Generation, where Season 2’s stronger storytelling coincided with Riker growing a beard, a look Gene Roddenberry approved and fans embraced as a sign the series had matured.

Read more cbr.com

via reddit.com

DQnPr TIL Vincent van Gogh had a known habit of sucking on his brushes to swap colors. It is widely believed that the lead poisoning partly led to his severe mental decline, resulting in his famously cutting off his ear, and ultimately shooting himself in the chest.
0emp TIL North Korea’s economy was larger than South Korea’s until the 1970s. Today its GDP is about 2.5% the size of South Korea’s.
D9rv TIL that when asked what his IQ was, Stephen Hawking said “I have no idea. People who boast about their IQ are losers.”
JXOB TIL Jack Abernathy was known as “Catch-‘em-alive Jack” because he would catch wolves by jumping off a horse, shoving his hand in the wolf’s mouth so it was unable to bite down, and holding it down until it became docile. He performed this trick for Teddy Roosevelt during a hunt in Oklahoma in 1905.
ne449 TIL that in a 2011 survey, 60% of Jamaicans said they supported reversing the country’s independence and becoming a British territory again.