› added 11 years ago

72

TIL that the blood of eels is more poisonous than some snake venom, but cooking or digesting the blood renders it harmless.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

BgxAK TIL: in 1896 two trains were intentionally crashed at high speed in the United States as a public spectacle.
ZknR TIL that Ada Lovelace, a female English mathematician and writer, wrote an algorithm in the mid 1800s designed to be carried out by a machine. As a result, she is often regarded as the first computer programmer.
KQo6 TIL that during Prohibition in the United States, Winston Churchill referred publicly to the Constitutional amendment banning alcohol as “an affront to the whole history of mankind.”
kJxe5 Til it is said that ancient Greek philosopher Empedocles died trying to prove he was a god by throwing himself into volcano Etna (Sicily, today Italy)
VMDmZ TIL in the 1950s an American economist (Armen A. Alchian) figured out lithium was used to fuel Hydrogen bombs just by looking at publicly-available stock prices.