› added 4 years ago

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TIL "Saudade" is the word for being nostalgic about past relationships that are hard to let go. It's the recollection of feelings/experiences/relationships/etc that brought happiness, but also the pain of separation from them. It acknowledges that longing for the past would detract from the future.

gMdbX TIL that rice farmers often put fish into their water-laden fields in a process called “rice-fish culture.” The fish act as pest control, improve oxygen circulation, and can even fertilize the soil with their droppings. This can increase the crop yield by 10% or more.
P1e1g TIL: birds exhibit very jerky movements mainly for depth perception — quickly switching which eye is looking at something enables comparison between viewpoints, much like humans constantly compare views from their two eyes which the brain uses to create a 3D picture.
Byyr TIL that the phrase “I do not agree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it”, the most quoted line in relation to freedom of speech, was misattributed to Voltaire because Evelyn Hall, in her biography of Voltaire’s life, used her own words to sum up his beliefs
D0mg TIL London Zoo had the first ever public aquarium and even coined the word. Before this an aquarium was called an underwater vivarium.
b5k7 TIL for $22,000 Swiss company Algordanza will take your ashes and compress them into a synthetic diamond to be set in jewelry for a loved one. Most stones come out blue because humans contains trace amounts of boron. Occasionally diamond pops out white, yellow or black.