Richard Stallman, a software freedom activist and computer programmer, and creator of a good portion of GNU/Linux, has 15 honorary doctorates.
Pirates rarely plundered gold, silver, and jewels…
Pirates rarely plundered gold, silver, and jewels. Their most common plunder was trade goods such as bolts of cloth, tanned animal skins, spices, sugar, dyes, cocoa, tobacco, cotton, and wood. That’s because most ships didn’t sail around with gold, silver, and jewels. Those things were on land, and paid for the bolts of cloth, tanned […]
The element ‘Cobalt’ gets it’s name from the German ‘kobold’…
The element ‘Cobalt’ gets it’s name from the German ‘kobold’ which means ‘goblin’. Miners found cobalt veins near their silver, and blamed this strange and dangerous metal on goblins, and thus named it after them.
China has banned time travel in TV, saying…
China has banned time travel in TV, saying that it “disrespects history”.
Benjamin Franklin never patented any of his inventions. He reasoned…
Benjamin Franklin never patented any of his inventions. He reasoned that “we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others”, and that “we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours; and this we should do freely and generously”.
On an island in Indonesia, if a child dies before he has started teething…
On an island in Indonesia, if a child dies before he has started teething, the baby is placed inside the trunk of a growing tree. The hole is then sealed and as the tree begins to heal, the child is believed to be absorbed. Dozens of babies may be interred within a single tree.
Crows are smart as great apes and able to show: imagination, the anticipation…
Crows are smart as great apes and able to show: imagination, the anticipation of possible future events, to solve problems which require abstract reasoning. Problems which once were only thought possible by humans and great apes.
South Dakota is the only state in the union to abolish Columbus…
South Dakota is the only state in the union to abolish Columbus Day and rename it Native American Day.
A funk band released an album on Spotify that consisted of…
A funk band released an album on Spotify that consisted of 10 completely silent tracks. They encouraged their fans to play it on a loop in their sleep. They used the royalty money to fund an admission-free tour.
A pilot was actually recorded saying “I picked a bad…
A pilot was actually recorded saying “I picked a bad day to stop sniffin’ glue” shortly before his plane crashed.