› added 7 years ago

237

TIL “Happy Birthday” is now in the Public Domain after Time Warner was sued in 2016

Read more arstechnica.com

via reddit.com

YpREA TIL Sir Walter Raleigh, British explorer and historian, first brought the potato to Ireland and planted them at his Irish estate. His cooks, who had never cooked potato before, served the leaves and stems (which are poisonous) making everyone sick. Potatoes were then banned from the court.
ZQYQ TIL Georgia is not named after Saint-George. The name rather derives from the Persian word for wolf, gurğ, and the region was referred to as Gorgan, or “land of the wolves”, for the heroic people who inhabited the territory. Its English name is a back-derivation of what was assumed to be George.
OoEVL TIL The origin of Shark Fin Soup dish can be traced to the Emperor Taizu of the Northern Song. He established shark fin soup to showcase his power. With the decline of Elitism when the CCP came to power, economy reforms led to middle classes who showcased their wealth by buying Shark Fin Soup.
l75xK TIL Cornell's Elephant Listening Project records and analyzes forest elephant calls to better understand where they are, what they’re doing, and what they’re trying to tell us.
WkeoY TIL In 1971 Fleetwood Mac had to cancel a sold out show booked at the Whiskey A Go Go when their guitarist Jeremy Spencer simply vanished into thin air. He was eventually found having cut off all his hair, dressed in shabby clothes, and joined a cult called The Children of God.