› added 4 years ago

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TIL that when distilling, the alcohol comes out in three stages: "heads", which are highly flavored but harsh, followed by "hearts" which is very pure alcohol. The two are blended to create the specific spirit. Last come the "tails", which is low-grade alcohol, which is typically distilled again.

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gGeb TIL that during American Civil War some soldier’s wounds glowed blue; soldier’s whose wounds glowed had better chance of surviving, and so the glow was called “Angel’s Glow”. Now it is known that the luminescence is due to bacteria that produce antibiotics and that live in nematodes
0dWKj TIL that before water fountains were used for people to drink water freely in public, people used to drink from something called the "common cup", a publicly shared and very unhygienic cup or ladle-type spoon attached by string.
KZZB TIL two years after Paul Revere’s ride, 16-year-old Sybil Ludington undertook a similar ride to raise the local militia, but she rode twice as far as Revere. In the rain. And fought off a highwayman with a musket.
e0Zgg TIL that in sensitive experiments, scientists have to use metal made before 1945 because the Cold War nuclear tests permanently made the atmosphere and as a result all manufactured metal too radioactive. Much of the metal is taken from sunken ships.
BJyd TIL that when 4 Soviet diplomats were kidnapped by Hezbollah & one of them was killed, KGB in turn kidnapped a family member of a Hezbollah leader & sent his castrated remains to them. The remaining diplomats were released unharmed.