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TIL that Dr Catherine Hamlin and her husband answered an ad in 1958 for an obstetrician and gynaecologist to set up a midwifery school in Ethiopia. She still works there today at the age of 89. Happy International Women’s Day!

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XX4E TIL to find interstellar life, one of the things astronomers look out for is a Dyson Sphere, a power plant which harnesses the power of its solar system’s sun by surrounding it with solar panels. It is theorized to be a logical necessity for a spacefaring civilization to sustain intergalactic travel
4Nd6 TIL That a company called The SeaStead Institute is trying to establish permanent autonomous ocean communities to enable social, political and legal system experiments. They plan on launching their first island 2014 and had recieved 500 000 dollar donation by a Co founder of PayPal
wLexo TIL that in 36 BCE, Roman statesman Marcus Varro wrote about germs, describing "minute creatures which cannot be seen by the eyes, which...enter the body through the mouth and nose and there cause serious diseases." The germ theory of disease would not be accepted widely for another 1,900 years.
p8byQ TIL it is common for truck drivers in India to elaborately decorate their trucks with colorful ornaments, kaleidoscopic images, iconography and bangles/jewels to create a psychedelic looking "Home away from Home" in honor of their culture and their families. It's also excellent advertisement!
l75mr TIL that almost 10% of modern Mongolians are descended from Genghis Khan