› added 4 years ago

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TIL The medieval "plague costume" beak was for smell — it was filled with herbs to mask the smell of the dying. Modern nurses do a similar thing in hospitals today. It is common for nurses to rub alcohol under their nose, under a respirator or face mask, to hide the scent of a patient's wounds.

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E1Y8X TIL about the "Battle of Los Angelos", when the US army fired over 1400 rounds of artillery fire into the skies over LA, when it turned out that there were actually no enemy aircraft.
VM8Yp TIL researchers asked four people to do random acts of kindness for others. Not only did it improve their own mood, but caused those strangers to be kinder to other people too. There is a ripple effect to kindness.
0wajv TIL that the French word for the cultivar group that includes snap peas and snow peas is "mangetout", which literally translates to "eat all"
Z8yYo TIL Biblioteca Joanina is one of only two libraries in the world that house a colony of bats. At night the bats hunt insects inside the library, thus helping with the maintenance of the stacks.
WkXM4 TIL Thomas Jefferson spoke English, French, Latin, could read Greek and Spanish, studied and wrote on Old English, and studied other languages including German, Arabic, Irish, and Welsh.