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TIL Ludwig von Beethoven's associates used notebooks to hold conversations with the composer after he became functionally deaf, to the point where historians can roughly piece together whole conversations the composer had based on what was written.

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D1JJJ Today I learned that that skin flap on cats' stomachs is not due to overweight. Instead they may serve to protect the cat's internal organs when in fights. It also allows for the cats to stretch more when running/jumping and provides room for an extended belly in case of a bigger than usual meal.
4Xe6g TIL in an experiment where subjects were told to allocate funds to other subjects, they would always favour members of their own group, even though they didn't know who the groupmembers were, had never met them, and had been arbitrarily put into their group.
LkPyr TIL Jason Statham was a diver who was selected by Britain's national diving team to compete in the 1990 Commonwealth Games. Shortly after, he was asked to model for French Connection, Tommy Hilfiger, and Levi's in various advertising campaigns.
klV4 TIL that after an 8-week course in mindfulness meditation, the amygdala, associated with fear and emotion, shrinks, while the pre-frontal cortex, associated with awareness, concentration and decision-making, becomes thicker
OGlv7 TIL: Aretha Franklin’s father, C.L. Franklin, was a famous civil rights activist. Known as “the Man With the Million Dollar Voice,” he was a friend to MLK Jr and a successful minister. Franklin was shot during a home invasion in 1979 and spent his final five years in a coma, dying in 1984.