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TIL that when a dignitary complained to President Theodore Roosevelt about Alice Roosevelt (his daughter) smoking on top of the White House, Roosevelt replied, “I can be President of the United States, or I can control Alice. I cannot possibly do both.”

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KO04G Protons are made up of even smaller particles called quarks, so you might expect that simply adding up the quarks’ masses should give you the proton’s mass. However, that sum is much too small to explain the proton’s bulk. And new, detailed calculations show that only 9 percent of the proton’s heft comes from the mass of constituent quarks. The rest of the proton’s mass comes from complicated effects occurring inside the particle, researchers report in the Nov. 23 Physical Review Letters.
nWN0G TIL in the Congo Free State soldiers had to provide the severed hand of Congolese they shot as proof they weren’t misusing munition, but in practice the hands became a sort of currency since they allowed soldiers to save bullets, leading to them cutting the hand off living people
a8jNZ TIL where this sound is from.
BrQpy TIL pinworms live in the gut but their eggs have to be eaten and hatch in the lower intestine. So at night they peek out the anus, causing people to itch themselves while sleeping, later transferring them to the mouth. 1/2 the world population has had them.
Nma8 TIL that pumice can form free-floating rafts so large that they can be mistaken for islands and that animals can migrate between landmasses on them.