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107

TIL becoming a librarian requires a master's degree

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GYw97 TIL the Portuguese, who began the Atlantic Slave Trade, first began kidnapping west Africans and taking the enslaved back to Europe as early as the 15th century.
pYRKO TIL that a component of the immune system is defensins ('defense' + '-in', which is the suffix for anything protein related). They are proteins with antimicrobial properties and can kill microbes directly, which can be an alternative for antibiotics.
4XLJg TIL that the Vulcan Salute from Star Trek was actually based off of an ancient Jewish hand sign used in the priestly blessing. Leonard Nimoy, a Jewish man, based the iconic gesture off the age old Jewish tradition
v10RK TIL Ball lightning is weird, actually real and deadly. The strange phenomenon of ball lightning appears during thunderstorms and has been known to break through windows, with nasty results.
xVpZ7 TIL of the One Small Step Act, which gives legal protection to the Apollo Moon landing sites against possible inadvertent or intentional tampering. It passed the US Senate in 2019 and is awaiting a vote in the House of Representatives