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TIL Einstein named Spinoza as the thinker most influential on his world view. When asked by a Rabbi if he believed in God, he replied "I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fates and actions of human beings."

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NrYN TIL when Nancy Grace was a prosecutor, she was reprimanded three times for misconduct, including “her disregard of the notions of due process and fairness”
ADZOn TIL that the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) virus is so infectious that one man in Hong Kong infected 183 people in 8 appartment buildings with one horriffic bowel movement, causing a plume of aerosolised faeces to circulate through the ventiltion system and outside on the wind.
5Vnbp TIL According to his widow, Constanze, Mozart received the commission for composing his Requiem from a mysterious messenger who did not reveal the commissioner's identity, and that Mozart came to believe that he was writing the requiem for his own funeral.
1ykO TIL that from a century after the Norman invasion of England in 1066, social status there is more inheritable than height: “English people whose ancestors were elite in the 1100s are still likely part of the upper crust today”
ZpPWp TIL that Scientists observed a wild orangutan (‘Rakus’) locate a plant used in SE Asia for pain & inflammation, pluck & chew up its leaves, apply plant juices to an injury on its right cheek, and then use the chewed plant as a bandage. Photos showed his wound closed within a month without problems: