Post * lVPG — Curious Curator

› added 9 years ago

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TIL Aristotle’s Eudemian Ethics, which is about happiness and what makes life worth living, was only published for the first time in a modern language in 2011

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KOO7Q Imagine yourself at a concert hall looking at a symphonic orchestra on stage. Have you ever noticed that high-pitched strings sit left of low-pitched strings? Going from left to right, one usually sees violins, violas, cellos and double basses. That is, one moves from high pitches on the left to low pitches on the right. Why? The orchestra’s arrangement is not a cultural oddity, like driving on the right side of the road. Rather, it is due to our own biological makeup. Higher pitches tend to be better processed by the left hemisphere of the brain, while lower pitches tend to be better processed by a similar region in the right hemisphere. This organisation is thought to have repercussions far beyond music, perhaps even helping to explain why language is mostly processed in the left hemisphere. So the part of my brain that better processes high sounds sits where the higher-pitched instruments sit: on the left. But that’s not the end of the story.

Oo66X TIL that in 2016, the worlds tallest waterslide decapitated a 10 year old due to gross negligence and all charges were dismissed.

XE68k TIL of John the Posthumous; a French king who ruled for the 5 days he lived in 1316. He was the youngest person to become King of France, the only one to be king from birth, and the only one to hold the title for his entire life. He has the shortest reign of any French king.

GY4Ag TIL that upon its release 'Stalker', a film by Andrei Tarkovsky, was criticized for being slow. In response to this Tarkovsky replied "The film needs to be slower and duller at the start so that the viewers who walked into the wrong theatre have time to leave before the main action starts."

0d1AM TIL about Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) where you are required to withdraw money from your IRA (retirement found) and be taxed when you reach the age of 72.