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TIL Ars Amatoria, the most famous work by roman poet Ovid, is just dating advice in the form of a poem. It was written in 2 AD and contains advice such as "never forget her birthday", "let her miss you but not too much" and "never ask her age". He also wrote a sequel with dating advice for women
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ars_Amatoria#Content
https://redd.it/1h4ebgv
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TIL Rare Earth Elements are actually fairly abundant. The rarest of REEs (thulium) is still 125 times more prevalent in the earth's crust than gold - and the most prolific REE (cerium) is 15,000 times more abundant. The name really refers to difficulty of finding large deposits or seams.
https://www.escatec.com/blog/rare-earth-elements-electronics-manufacturing?hs_amp=true
https://redd.it/1h4bmqw
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TIL in 1830, around 13.7% of the U.S. black population was free, totaling about 319,599. Surprisingly, 3,775 free blacks owned 12,760 slaves, according to the census.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/facts-about-slavery/
https://redd.it/1h4em9b
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TIL during the French Revolution, Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, changed his name to "Citizen Égalité", advocated against absolute monarchy, and in the National Convention, voted to guillotine Louis XVI. Despite this, he still executed in 1793 during Reign of Terror as an enemy of the republic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Philippe_II,_Duke_of_Orl%C3%A9ans
https://redd.it/1h4b2r1
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Today I learned that sound can be minus decibels. The quietest place on Earth is Microsoft’s anechoic chamber in Redmond, WA, USA, at -20.6 decibels. These anechoic chambers are built out of heavy concrete and brick and are mounted on springs to stop vibrations from getting in through the floor.
https://www.sciencefocus.com/science/how-do-you-create-absolute-silence/
https://redd.it/1h49szz
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TIL that Nova Scotia is Latin for New Scotland because the first European colonists there were Scottish. So New England is next to New Scotland.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nova_Scotia
https://redd.it/1h3d7ok
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TIL that Granny Smith apples originated near Sydney, Australia in 1868 and were only first imported en masse to the US in the 1970’s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granny_Smith
https://redd.it/1h3hi1r
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TIL about the "Singing Sand Dunes" phenomenon, where certain desert dunes emit a low-pitched hum due to sand grain vibrations under specific conditions
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/why-sand-dunes-deserts-around-world-sing-1-180957071/
https://redd.it/1h3jrwz
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TIL about TV pickups, a phenomenon in the United Kingdom where there is a surge in electricity demand caused by the switching on of millions of electric kettles to brew cups of tea or coffee. This occurs during breaks in popular television programmes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TV_pickup
https://redd.it/1h3c2yw
@r_til
TIL about Philippine Airlines Flight 812. A passenger hijacked the plane and robbed the other passengers. He tried escaping using a homemade parachute, but he couldn't jump and needed a flight attendant to give him a push. He was killed after his parachute failed to open. Everyone else was unharmed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine_Airlines_Flight_812
https://redd.it/1h3mmi1
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TIL Benjamin Franklin, fascinated by compounding interest, left $2,000 in 1789 to Boston and Philly to loan to young artisans and grow for 200 years. Mismanagement diverted his vision, but the funds reached $6.5M by 1991, supporting public projects and showing the power—and challenges—of compounding
https://surface.syr.edu/hst_etd/30/#:~:text=In%201789%2C%20Benjamin%20Franklin%20added,the%20course%20of%20200%20years
https://redd.it/1h2fdo8
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TIL that General Patton as a young officer competed in the 1912 Olympics in Pentathlon where he came in 5th, mostly because he insisted on using his own .38 service revolver for the shooting event and left such large holes in the target that it could not be determined if all of the rounds had hit.
https://www.uipmworld.org/hall-fame/general-george-smith-patton-usa-2016
https://redd.it/1h2ip28
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TIL a team of student volunteers on an archaeological dig at a site in northern France discovered a 200-year-old note left by an archaeologist who had performed an excavation of the site in 1825.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5yj7kg3zd1o
https://redd.it/1h2tei6
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TIL toilet paper was invented in 1857. Before that early North American colonists used corn cobs. Sailors used ‘tow rag’, which was a long piece of frayed rope that dangled in the water.
https://www.cottonelle.com/en-ca/tips-advice/toilet-paper-101/what-did-people-use-before-toilet-paper
https://redd.it/1h2oxm6
@r_til
TIL in 2016, a man deleted his open-source Javascript package, which consisted of only 11 lines of code. Because this packaged turned out to be a dependency on major software projects, the deletion caused service disruptions across the internet.
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2016/03/how-11-lines-of-code-broke-tons-sites.html
https://redd.it/1h2uj2i
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TIL of Sister Exchange, a type of marriage agreement where two sets of siblings marry each other. In order to get married, a man needs to persuade his sister to marry the bride's brother. It is practised as a primary method of organising marriages in 3% of the world's societies.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sister_exchange
https://redd.it/1h4e4uf
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TIL 5 members of Ernest Hemingway's family committed suicide.
https://www.grunge.com/852900/tragic-details-about-the-hemingway-family/
https://redd.it/1h4gpxt
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TIL tipping was abolished in Switzerland in 1974 after a dispute over taxes on tips. Service is now included in prices, with higher wages replacing tips.
https://www.ubs.com/ch/en/private/accounts-and-cards/information/magazine/2016/good-money-for-a-good-service.html
https://redd.it/1h40cs4
@r_til
TIL in 1984, 13-year-old Andy Smith wrote to President Reagan asking for funds to clean his bedroom after his mom called it a “disaster area”. Raegan sent a tongue-in-cheek reply saying his funds were “dangerously low” and suggested he practice volunteerism instead to solve local problems.
https://lettersofnote.com/2012/06/19/my-mother-declared-my-bedroom-a-disaster-area/
https://redd.it/1h48bw7
@r_til
TIL the liquid ban on planes wasn’t caused by 9/11 but by British MI5, who foiled a 2006 terror plot involving liquid explosives disguised as soft drinks.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_transatlantic_aircraft_plot
https://redd.it/1h4cjrf
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TIL in 2006, the football team now known as the Washington Commanders repurposed old bags of peanuts originally supplied to a defunct airline and sold them to attendees of their games. These bags of peanuts were at least 9 months old (they had a recommended shelf life of 3 months).
https://sports.yahoo.com/dan-snyder-and-the-commanders-a-timeline-of-dysfunction-and-scandal-201722850.html
https://redd.it/1h3nheu
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TIL There's a parasite that affects salmon that is related to jellyfish and is the only multicellular animal that doesn't need oxygen. It's been hypothesized that they initially were jellyfish cancer that escaped their host and evolved separately.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henneguya_zschokkei
https://redd.it/1h39vcx
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TIL that the first age restricted town in the US is named Youngtown
https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youngtown,_Arizona
https://redd.it/1h3llre
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TIL there is a Kenyan fintech app called Okash that threatens to notify everyone on the users contact list if they fall behind on their repayments.
https://restofworld.org/2020/okash-microlending-public-shaming/
https://redd.it/1h3ooa0
@r_til
TIL In the 80s, there was a panic over reports that 1.5 million children per year being abducted in the US, but it turned out to be just bad record keeping.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_children_panic
https://redd.it/1h3i5gm
@r_til
TIL that in 1959 the Omaha VA Hospital purchased a nuclear reactor for $154,000, it was in operation until 2001 when it was dismantled for security concerns following 9/11.
https://department.va.gov/history/100-objects/object-57-va-nuclear-reactor/#:~:text=The%20reactor%20at%20the%20Omaha,decommissioned%20and%20dismantled%20the%20reactor
https://redd.it/1h2xral
@r_til
TIL California was mistakenly depicted as an island on maps for nearly 150 years. This error, due to a Spanish friar's mistake in 1603 and spread by Dutch pirates, persisted until 1747 when King Ferdinand VI of Spain had to officially decree "California is not an island" to finally debunk the myth.
https://stanfordmag.org/contents/california-dreaming
https://redd.it/1h2s3u8
@r_til
TIL researchers identified traces of cocaine in the brain tissue of two people buried in Italy in the 17th century. The discovery challenges longstanding assumptions about the drug, which was thought to not have spread throughout Europe until the 19th century.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/europeans-were-using-cocaine-in-the-17th-century-hundreds-of-years-earlier-than-historians-thought-180985099/
https://redd.it/1h2sx77
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TIL the most expensive fossil ever sold at auction is a mostly complete skeleton of a Stegosaurus known as Apex which sold for $44.6 million to billionaire Kenneth C. Griffin. It's the largest and most complete known Stegosaurus skeleton, with 254 bones preserved out of approximately 319.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apex_(dinosaur)
https://redd.it/1h2ljk9
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TIL that Bryan Cranston, who starred in Malcolm in the Middle, used to invite Erik Per Sullivan, who played Dewey, to spend weekends with the Cranston family.
https://www.unilad.com/celebrity/bryan-cranston-did-an-amazing-thing-for-dewey-20220901
https://redd.it/1h2wy8d
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