Post * LkEA9 — Curious Curator

› added 6 years ago

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TIL aluminum was the most valuable metal on Earth until the 20th century. When Napoleon the third entertained guests, his guests would use a gold spoon and he would use an aluminum spoon.

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5wVk TIL than in 1881 a woman got away with murdering a man who broke off their engagement by using the “hysteria defense,” i.e., a doctor told the jury that “Any virtuous woman when deprived of her virtue would go mad, undoubtedly.” The jury acquitted her in 20 minutes.

5Vg4n TIL about Rebecca Sharrock, a 27-year-old from Australia who has Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM), a rare syndrome that allows her to recall every single detail of her life on any given date.

EQyd TIL Galileo’s middle finger is kept in a museum since its 1737, symbolizing Galileo pointing to the skies, pointing to evolution, to new things, to the infinite and “giving the finger” to all of his critics who doubted him, including the catholic church.

yQgvX TIL about Giovanni de Ventura, a municipal plague doctor for the town of Pavia in late XV century Italy. He wasn't to require fees from treating patients, as the city of Pavia provided generously for him in terms of salary. He may also have donned the "beak doctor" attire.

m1Yyp Today I learned that upper class women in the Tudor era exposed their breast for fashion. Even Elizabeth was known to greet the French ambassador with her entire breast exposed according to one article by Louis Montrose. It is even documented she would sometimes have her belly exposed as well!