› added 4 years ago

547

TIL that Necrophoresis is a behavior found in social insects – such as ants, bees, wasps, and termites – in which they carry the dead bodies of members of their colony from the nest or hive area. This acts as a sanitary measure to prevent disease or infection from spreading throughout the colony.

Read more nationalgeographic.com

via reddit.com

4XpxJ TIL of the horseshoe theory, in which the far right and the far left in fact closely resemble one another (tendency to support authoritarian governments, etc), such that the political continuum resembles a horseshoe rather than a linear line.
vP7j TIL that corporal punishment (spanking) is still practiced in the United States and in the 2006-07 school year more than ¼ million kids were spanked. A disproportionate number of those hit were children with disabilities
J1AQm TIL that France sent the first cat into space in 1963. Félicette was a stray cat from the streets of Paris and was one of 14 cats trained for spaceflight. She survived her trip but was euthanised 2 months later.
mxRbv TIL that you likely have thousands of mites living on your face right now. The males crawl out of your pores at night to find a female and have sex on your face.
D1QPP It seems like a good idea; after all, not many vessels are capable of sustaining life in space, so why not recycle what we’ve got? Unfortunately, the current fleet just isn’t cut out for long-term habitation. When NASA retires the three remaining space shuttles next year, the craft will be sent to museums.