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TIL Artists in Renaissance Europe often painted fake Arabic script on the halos and garment hems of Christian saints because they saw it on gilded Islamic artifacts and thought it looked cool. The artists didn't know Arabic and their paintings were just gibberish.

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QJLE9 TIL that the Higgs Boson's media nickname "The God Particle" came from physicist Leon Lederman. He wrote a book and wanted it titled "The Goddamn Particle", poking fun at how hard it was to find. The publishers changed the title to "The God Particle" and the nickname stuck.
wLGB1 TIL The movie ”Moana” was released as ”Oceania” in Italy. They changed the name because a porn star named Moana was well known in the country.
k081 TIL That on this day in 1963 the US Military created an artificial ring around the earth, similar to that of the planet Saturn. The ring was made of copper needles and was used for worldwide communications in the case that the Soviets disabled all other methods of communication.
wLpbE TIL Famous physicist Sir Roger Penrose conjectures that consciousness is a result of quantum mechanical phenomena in neurons. He has worked with anesthesiologist Stuart Hameroff to suggest with anesthetic/biological research that microtubules may act as a suitable site in neurons for consciousness.
LQlpm TIL that when Kentucky Fried Chicken moved its headquarters to Tennessee, Colonel Sanders (who had sold KFC in 1964, but still had much influence) said "This ain't no goddam Tennessee Fried Chicken, no matter what some slick, silk-suited son-of-a-bitch says". The company soon moved back to Kentucky.