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TIL a simple equation called Dawes Formula is very accurate at predicting success of marriages - “frequency of lovemaking minus frequency of quarrels”. A positive difference predicts marital happiness, a negative one unhappiness.

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wLjB8 TIL In Kansas, it is illegal to hunt whales, even though it is located in the middle of the country with no coastline in sight.
wL7rM TIL When Captain Cook returned from his first voyage he brought with him the term ‘tattoo’ if not the practice itself. While inking designs onto the skin was no new thing in 18th Century Europe, ensured much attention to this ancient art and introduced a new word, ‘tattoo’.
GAQwj TIL that 25% of all known animal species are beetles
l7MPB TIL that in the 1600s there was an English chef called Robert May who made pastry ships that featured cannons with real gunpowder, which, when lit for mock battle, caused the ships to explode in a cloud of smoke
WkbGN TIL that, despite the superior balistic performances of rifled muskets, the Americn Civil War losses by infantry fire were not much different from those suffered during the Napoleonic battles. Artillery, though, was much more lethal.