› added 4 years ago

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TIL that the brushwork on Mona Lisa is so intricate that it literally requires x-rays to view the brush strokes. Apparently, Vinci used a well-known renaissance painting technique called 'sfumato', in which he added 30 layers of paint that still came out to be only 40 micrometers.

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mxKjM TIL rain on concrete or soil causes pockets of gas that were stored to be released because they get softened, which gives that familiar ‘after-rain’ smell
d8yBB TIL of the "Miracle" at Missionary Ridge during the US Civil War, when Union soldiers, after completing an ordered assault, went on seemingly of their own volition to storm up and drive back an "impregnable" entrenched Confederate defense on a high ridge.
8evM4 TIL the human digestive system cannot process alcohol. Alcohol must first be transformed into another chemical called acetaldehyde, which can damage DNA and cause cancer.
DQ4j TIL There was a German Citizen who was kidnapped by the US Govt., tortured in Afghanistan for a few months and released into a desolate road in Albania when he was found innocent. All because his name sounded similar to a suspected terrorist.
jL8N TIL There is a infant herpes outbreak in NYC, due to the Orthodox Jewish tradition known as oral suction circumcision