Interesting Contents Archive

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Leonardo Da Vinci’s half-brother tried to recreate him by sleeping with a peasant woman from the same village as Leonardo’s mother, and engineering the life of the resulting baby to mirror Leonardo’s.

Word of the Day: BLURSDAY (neologism) — a term to describe the current day when you are not sure what day of the week it is.

From 1912 to 1948, painting was an Olympic event. In 1924, Jack Yeats, brother of the poet W. B. Yeats, took the silver: Ireland’s first-ever Olympic medal.

There’s a conspiracy theory that the term ‘conspiracy theory’ was coined by the CIA in the 1960s to discredit those who questioned the official version of J.F. Kennedy assassination.

At some point in life the world's beauty becomes enough. You don't need to photograph, paint or even remember it. It is enough. TONI MORRISON

Joan of Arc was born on #ThisDayInHistory in 1412. She lived only 19 years, but she would become a national hero of France and a Roman Catholic saint for her pivotal role in the Hundred Years’ War.

The word ‘posthaste’ meaning ‘quickly, immediately’ comes from a delivery instruction ‘haste, post, haste’ written on urgent letters to couriers, who in the 16th century were called ‘posts’.

Marlon Brando used to put screenplays sent to him by producers in the freezer. When he felt like it, he took them out, tossed them in the air into the canyon near his home, and shot at them with a shotgun.

People are less likely to vote when they're told their vote doesn't matter…

Reginald Foster was an official Latinist of the Vatican who, among other things, invented Latin terms for modern phenomena, e.g. ‘assula minutula electrica’, ‘a tiny little amber wood chip’ for ‘microchip’ and ‘musica titubantium’, ‘the music of those who sway’ for ‘rock’n’roll’.

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The know-nothings are, unfortunately, seldom the do-nothings. MIGNON MCLAUGHLIN

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