› added 12 years ago

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TIL that the saying ‘to take with a grain of salt" comes from Pliny the Elder, who wrote about an antidote for a certain poison, having as one of its ingredients a measure of salt. He thought that if an antidote involved salt, then the poison itself should be regarded less seriously than normal.

1PvO TIL about the Zomba Prison Project, a music recording made by inmates of a maximum security prison in Malawi known as the “ waiting room of hell. ” The completed album has 20 songs by 16 prisoners and was nominated for the Best World Music Album in 2016.
yVbbM TIL About Count Carl von Cosel the Key West radiologist who fell in love with a terminal tuberculosis patient then attempted to revive her for seven years after her death. He stole her remains from the cemetery and lived with her corpse for seven years
nRLr TIL you steadily “dry out” as you age. A newborn human baby is 75 percent water, adult men are about 60 percent, adult women 55 percent, and elderly people are roughly half.
kbxe TIL the Chevalier d'Éon, French diplomat and spy, appeared publicly as male for 49 years but once infiltrated the court of Empress Elizabeth of Russia by posing as a woman. In 1777, d'Éon began dressing publicly as a woman and claimed to be female.
pYpG4 TIL that in 1986, Mark Gonzales and Natas Kaupas became the first skateboarders to ride handrails. Then in 1987, Gonz began consistently riding switch stance, further pushing the boundaries of the sport.