› added 1 year ago

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TIL Attalus III of Pergamon had little interest in ruling his kingdom and instead he was devoted to his hobbies, like gardening and botany. In his will he left his entire kingdom to the romans, thinking they'd conquer it anyway, he wanted to avoid all the bloodshed

4Xe5b TIL it is a myth that bats use their echolocation to deftly maneuver around one another. High speed cameras show that bats crash into each other all the time.
KO65Q TIL of a woman who is literally fearless due to a rare genetic condition known as Urbach-Wiethe disease that hardened her amygdala - part of the brain responsible for fear response. Researchers exposed her to potentially terrifying experiences and none of them scared her.
dDxMZ TIL a sheepdog named Casper fought for over 30 minutes against 11 coyotes who were threatening his flock, killed 8 of them, and survived with a severe neck wound and a missing tail.
YwKG TIL Bryan Cranston did most of his own stunts on “Malcolm in the Middle”. A writer on the show jokingly asked whether Cranston would be willing to wear a suit of live bees, Cranston said yes—so they wrote a script around the idea. He ended up covered in 10,000 bees, and only got stung once.
vPlk8 TIL that the word “bear” is the oldest known euphemism. Ancient Germanic tribes were afraid that speaking the bear’s true name would cause one to appear, so they simply referred to it as “a wild animal” or “the brown one.” The English word “bear” is descended from this superstition.