› added 7 years ago

246

TIL there was some controversy to the inclusion of Chuck Berry’s ‘Johnny B. Goode’ on the Voyager Golden Record. Carl Sagan was told that rock music was adolescent. Sagan responded, “There are a lot of adolescents on the planet.”

Read more smithsonianmag.com

via ift.tt

Wkred TIL that Bill Nye's family has a history of a neurological disorder called ataxia and the reason he decided not to have kids was to avoid passing down the condition to them.
wLPK8 TIL of Herostratus, a 4th century BC Greek arsonist who burned down the Temple of Artemis, considered one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world. He said he had done it to immortalise his name. He was executed him and a law was passed forbidding anyone from saying his name, under penalty of death.
4XvYw TIL The three organs that give electric eels the ability to generate electricity take up four fifths of its body. They can also control their victim's nervous system and muscles via electrical pulses, so they can keep prey from escaping or force it to move so they can locate its position
Q8Xk TIL that the Lord of the Rings novels were written as if they were translated to English, and the actual common tongue of the books is called Westron.
awVwA TIL: Bees are not supposed to die after they sting. They usually sting away as many times as they want but only die when they sting humans. This is because their barbed stinger cannot cope with fleshy human skin, tearing away their abdomen when they try to pull away after stinging.