› added 1 year ago

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TIL that the Ohio Supreme Court ruled 5-2 that landowners were not liable after a man who was driving a vehicle slid on black ice, crashed into their fortified mailbox, and became paralyzed.

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D1evD TIL to combat the spread of smallpox during the Civil War, soldiers would find someone with cowpox, cut open their pustules, and infect themselves with it. The less harmful cowpox made them immune to smallpox, but they sometimes confused cowpox with syphilis and gave themselves an STD instead.
b609p TIL about Tadeusz Kościuszko, a national hero in Poland, the United States, Lithuania, and Belarus, who fought in the American Revolutionary war and willed that his estate be used to free slaves after his death. His wish was never honored.
VMKrm TIL: Honey bees keep their hives at a constant temperature around 33C. If its too cold they generate heat by flexing their muscles, and if its too hot then they vent hot air by fanning their wings
BraAD TIL that it is impossible to get the true measure of the coastline of any nation on the planet due to something called the Coastline Paradox. For example the CIA measures the USA's coastline as 18,924 miles whereas NOAA measures it as 95,471 miles.
9Y4EX TIL muskrats are considered legally fish by the Catholic diocese of southeast Michigan, allowing them to be eaten on Fridays during Lent. When asked about the ruling the local bishop wrote that "anyone who could eat muskrat was doing penance worthy of the greatest of the saints."