› added 5 years ago

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TIL Moby, the musician, was named in honor of his great-great-great uncle, Herman Melville, author of Moby-Dick.

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bPw9 TIL: “Tall poppy syndrome” is a term used to describe a social phenomenon in which people of genuine merit are resented, attacked, cut down, or criticized because their talents or achievements elevate them above or distinguish them from their peers.
v1o7D TIL that in June of last year, a swan living in Manchester, England died of a broken heart when teenagers threw bricks at her nest and killed all but one of her unborn cygnets and drove off her mate due to stress
DKkr TIL each new US spy satellite under the “Key Hole” program is expected to cost more than the latest Nimitz-class aircraft carriers.
PYnkL TIL about Ans van Dijk, a Jewish Dutch woman who was the only woman executed after WWII in the Netherlands. She was found guilty of treason by working for the nazis and betraying the hiding places of at least 145 other Jewish people including her own brother.
pD58 TIL that up until the 1800’s, it was commonly believed that placing dirty underwear in a bucket with wheat grains would “generate” mice. This was called spontaneous generation, the idea that life could be created from nonliving objects.