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TIL Leonardo da Vinci designed a 12-barreled rapid-fire type of machine gun which was intended to be both lightweight and quite mobile on the battlefield. While he worked on such weapons for the benefit of his patrons, he also did so out of intellectual curiosity.

xgA5 TIL Vincent Van Gogh didn’t cut his ear because of his depression. He lost his ear in a fight with his friend Paul Gauguin.
9YJy7 TIL that the American Rock Band ‘The Postal Service’ was sent a cease and desist letter by the United States Postal Service for trademark infringement of their name. After negotiations, the USPS allowed the band to use their name in exchange for playing a free show at their national conference.
oRWwL TIL compared to their overall weight, koalas have among of the smallest brains of any animal. They are so dumb that they cannot identify leaves as food and refuse to consume them when they are placed on a flat surface as opposed to branches.
GYbb7 TIL nuclear physicist Nicholas Kemmer suggested the atomic symbol "Pu" for plutonium deliberately as a joke because it resembled "P.U." (an expression of disgust at a foul smell), yet no one objected, and it made it onto the periodic table.
ADBww TIL: In the 1800s, Mrs Favell Lee Mortimer set out to write an ambitious guide to all the nations on Earth. She had never set foot outside Shropshire. She was horribly misinformed about virtually every topic she turned her attention to. And she was prejudiced against foreigners.