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TIL Alexandra Elbakyan, a science graduate born in Kazakhstan due to the frustrations of publisher paywalls she found once returning back home from a research internship at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlantis, founded the largest pirate site for academic papers Sci-Hub

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N7k4e TIL Led Zeppelin songs “Ramble On,” “Misty Mountain Hop,” and “The Battle for Evermore” were all inspired by The Hobbit and/or The Lord of the Rings. Black Sabbath, Rush, Genesis, and many other classic rock bands were also inspired by Tolkien’s works!
XEyNk TIL: Airports have Zambonis for cleaning airplane tire rubber off the surface of runways
kOZk5 TIL of Stubbins Ffirth who attempted to prove that Yellow Fever wasn't contagious by smearing vomit, blood, saliva, and urine from patients in open wounds on his arms. While he never got sick, it later emerged that the samples he used had come from late-stage patients who were no longer contagious
oRKAr TIL that there's a small village in Japan called Nagoro, where a woman named Ayano Tsukimi has created over 350 life-sized dolls to replace the declining population. The dolls outnumber the living residents by 10 to 1.
4kgOa TIL “Bésame Mucho” (“Kiss Me a Lot”) was written in 1941 by Consuelo Velasquez, who was about 15 years old at the time, in bolero style. Inspired by the Nightingale Aria from the opera “Goyescas” by Enrique Granados, she said that she had never been kissed when she wrote the song.