› added 8 years ago

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TIL pornography is legal in the US even though prostitution is not, because it is illegal to pay one explicitly for sex, but the participants in a film/photo are paid to act and are protected under the first amendment to take part in sexual acts as part of the act.

eAr5 TIL that Michelangelo actually intended his famous David statue to be viewed from what we consider to be the side. It presents David as a much more menacing figure, facing down Goliath. Part of the genius of the sculpture is that viewing it from the side suddenly lets you see him as a gentler figure
oRABY TIL it used to be believed that babies as old as 15 months couldn't feel pain. As a result, doctors would preform surgery without anesthesia. Doctors used muscle relaxants on the infants to prevent squirming, essentially paralyzing the babies for the duration of the procedure.
epPY6 TIL that Nietzsche's central concepts of Will to Power and Eternal Recurrence were in part inspired by long-forgotten natural scientist Johannes Gustav Vogt's "Force: A Realistic and Monistic Worldview" (1878), a work nowhere to be found and de facto lost for all of us
QOBa TIL the sandwich was supposedly invented by the Earl of Sandwich, who was so addicted to gambling that he refused to leave the table for meals, and demanded something he could eat with one hand. It caught on amongst other players, who ordered “the same as sandwich” - thus, “the sandwich”.
4Xnnw TIL that in Victorian London, mail was delivered to homes 12 times a day. "Return of post" was a commonly used phrase for requesting an immediate response to be mailed at the next scheduled delivery. It was quite common for people to complain if a letter didn't arrive within a few hours.