› added 11 years ago

77

TIL that in May 1959, when Billie Holiday was taken to Metropolitan Hospital in New York with liver and heart disease, she was arrested for drug possession as she lay dying. Her hospital room was raided by police and she remained under police guard until her death in July.

5YD9n TIL about autological words ("English", "parasyllabic", "unhyphenated") which describe themselves, and heterological words ("long", "hyphenated", "monosyllabic") which do not describe themselves. "Heterological" itself cannot logically be autological or heterological: The "Grelling–Nelson Paradox"
v1N8B TIL Brandon Sanders once, In his high school, sent his story to a writing contest, Judges thought he had written something really postmodern and telling the story backward, Turns out he had just stapled the pages backward.
M7LnA TIL in 1998, Gerald Blanchard parachuted onto an Austrian castle at night to steal the jewel "Star of Empress Sisi." He swapped it with a gift shop replica, and the theft wasn’t noticed for 2 weeks. His bold stunt and attention to detail made it one of the most daring heists in modern history.
wL7W1 TIL Myostatin is a protein produced in the human body that inhibits muscle growth. People with myostatin deficiency have twice the muscle mass of the average human and usually more muscle strength. Strongman Eddie Hall has myostatin deficiency
6EeZX TIL about the Toba Catastrophe - the theory that 75,000 years ago, a massive volcano eruption reduced the human population to 3000, causing a genetic bottleneck that has reduced the genetic diversity in humans today.