› added 4 years ago

443

TIL Though fully described by John Langdon Down in 1862, Down Syndrome has been featured in numerous works of art since antiquity, including an Ancient Egyptian figure, and Clay figure from Mexico from about AD 500

Read more hekint.org

via reddit.com

v1W4B TIL of the insane degree of Convergent Evolution of life on Earth. There is a multitude of cases in which species have adapted to environments by Evolving almost identical body plans and strategies.
Eg5OX TIL that there’s a female chimpanzee who enjoys TV porn. Not only does she use the remote control perfectly well, but she also regularly chooses adult entertainment over other programming by herself.
D17Av TIL The song Greensleeves is from 1580 and while often said to refer to a promiscuous woman or prostitute whose clothing was stained green from having sex in the grass, it is more likely associated with green being the color of romance in that time period.
ALd7 TIL The photographer who took the picture of the starving African child with a vulture waiting for her death committed suicide after 3 months. His suicide note said “I am haunted by the vivid memories of killings and corpses and anger and pain.“
O0rX TIL In the early 1960s, the US military dispersed 480,000,000 copper needles in orbit around the Earth, in a failed attempt at creating an artificial ionosphere to improve radio communication. Many of the needles are still up there today.