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TIL Nietzsche's opinion about poets from Henry Rollins of Black Flag: "Poets are those who muddy their waters to make them appear deep".

0wBLN TIL of Laura Bassi, the first woman to have a doctorate in science. She was privately tutored till she was 20, when the archbishop of Bologna noticed her talent and became her patron. She earned her doctorate at 21 by defending 49 theses before professors of the University of Bologna.
X0o8R TIL Why paper cuts are so painful is b/c at a microscopic level, paper is actually quite rough. A knife makes a straight cut, but paper acts like a saw blade and does more damage to cells and nerve endings. Paper also leaves behind tiny fibres and chemical residues, irritating the wound even more.
ADxrl TIL that the 29th May (also this Friday) is officially “Put a Pillow on Your Fridge Day”: before refrigerators were invented in the 1920s, families in Europe and the USA would place a piece of cloth on their larder for good luck once a year.
M7V9W TIL how dangerous it was to serve in the US Air Force in Europe in WW2. Just the US 8th Air Force alone lost 26,000 KIA out of a total strength of 200,000. Comparatively the Marine Corps suffered just under 20,000 KIA while having 50,000 more men deployed.
1awdD TIL that in 2010 the Pope’s astronomer, Guy Consolmagno, claimed that if extra terrestrial life were ever to be discovered, and an alien life form requested the sacrament of baptism, then he would gladly baptise the alien.