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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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via reddit.com

QJa6a TIL about Skateistan, an organization in Afghanistan dedicated to young people's education and skating. 50 percent of the children skating are girls because Afghanistan culture views it as a toy rather than a sport.
wLyY1 TIL: Mistletoe, commonly seen during Christmas with people kissing under it, is a parasitic plant that kills trees and produces poisonous berries.
W7kN8 TIL the word "Spandex" is an anagram of the word "Expands"
R5MZw TIL salmon is a natural laxative
MeYda TIL Leonardo Da Vinci is credited as being first to correctly explain Earthshine