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TIL that wild fans have been a thing at least since the 1800s when composer Lizst had to keep a dog so he can cut its hair to keep up with the demand for his hair locks

ePMD TIL that the plans for turning Russia into a parliamentary democracy were completed one day before Alexander II was assassinated in 1881. He was supposed to present these to the Russian people in the next 48 hours. The first action of his more conservative son was to tear up those plans.
Zplxv TIL there are 8 Mediterranean seas. In oceanography, a Mediterranean sea is defined as a mostly enclosed body of water with limited exchange with outer oceans, where water circulation is primarily driven by salinity and temperature differences rather than winds or tides.
9M8B TIL Picard’s Flute from the Star Trek TNG episode “The Inner Light” was put up for auction along with other Star Trek memorabilia in 2006. Christie’s estimated the flute would sell for $300. The winning bidder paid $48,000 for the flute.
e7eb TIL that in 1998 the NIH changed lowered the BMI scores that would be normal, overweight, or obese. 29 million Americans became overweight over night, even though there was no clinical reason. However 7 out of 9 people on the committee worked for or owned weight loss companies.
9XlX Austrian mathematician Kurt Gödel had an obsessive fear of being poisoned, and would only eat food that his wife prepared for him. When she had to be hospitalized for six months in 1977, he refused to eat at all and died weighing 65 pounds.