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TIL astronomers polished a 25-meter mirror for the Great Magellan Telescope so smooth that the largest bump is .0003 times the width of a human hair

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wL9lJ TIL that during the pre-production of "The Handmaid's Tale" tv series author Margaret Atwood (whose wrote the novel) was consulted about the updates to some of the dialogue (the original novel was written in 1985). During the discussion Atwood was forced to ask "What's a carpet muncher?".
9A0D TIL a simple illusion can detect if you have schizophrenia
7rQOX TIL when Alexander the Great conquered Persia from Darius III he stole his mother. After kidnapping her, she become to devoted to Alexander, while he referred to her as “mother,” and when called on to mourn Darius III she said “I have only one son [Alexander] and he is king of all Persia.”
DQKgY TIL: The professor of psychology at UB ,Sally Farley, found that you can determine relationship status through 1 second snippets of laughter. Friend laughter is louder, more relaxed, and natural. Romantic laughter more feminine-sounding, baby-like, submissive, and less pleasant.
7rY4P TIL: Samuel Morse invented the telegraph after he received a letter of his wife’s failing health… after she’d died.