› added 12 years ago

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TIL that four people have been estranged from the Phelps family (the one that heads the westboro baptist church). One of them, Nathan Phelps, considers himself an atheist and considers the WBC an organization for his father to “vent his rage and anger.” He now works to promote science and reason.

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VMZe8 TIL that 20th centuries physicist and Nobel laureate JJ Thomson had 9 students who later won the Nobel prize in physics or chemistry. Robert Oppenheimer was also one of his students.
RKAa TIL There is a man who digs up antique denim left in old abandoned silver mines. When a miner got a new pair of work pants, he’d cut up the old ones and use them for lagging around pipes. Collectors pay thousands of dollars for jeans, jackets and even scraps of denim
vPlk8 TIL that the word “bear” is the oldest known euphemism. Ancient Germanic tribes were afraid that speaking the bear’s true name would cause one to appear, so they simply referred to it as “a wild animal” or “the brown one.” The English word “bear” is descended from this superstition.
kR0e TIL US Ensign Chester Nimitz was court-martialed and reprimanded for grounding a destroyer in 1908. He would become Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet during WWII, and Chief of Naval Operations after the war.
l7Xda TIL that in 1982, the U.S. State of Oregon sued the organiser of a backgammon tournament, arguing that the game was illegal gambling. The judge ruled against the state, saying that backgammon is a game of skill.