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TIL that the Iron Maiden is a mythical torture and execution device, consisting of an iron cabinet with a hinged front and spike-covered interior, sufficiently tall to enclose a human being. The first stories citing the iron maiden were composed in the 19th century.

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GYZgG TIL that James Bond originally used a Beretta 418 until a fan of the novels (and small arms expert) wrote to Ian Flemming criticizing it as "a woman's gun". When Flemming had Bond switch to his iconic Walther PPK in Dr. No, he wrote the fan into the scene as MI6's armorer
1aa8d New research finds it stimulates a pleasant form of mind-wandering.
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ADRbn TIL about Grace Hopper (1906-1992). She was rejected by the Navy during WWII due to her age, her weight-to-height ratio and utility as a mathematics professor. Instead she became a programmer of the Harvard Mark I computer, and later popularized the idea of machine-independent programming languages.
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