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Peanuts are a great source of folate. That’s vitamin B9. Too little folate can result in anemia. Feeling tired? Eat some peanuts. Too little folate also increases the risk of cancer and stroke and other bad things. Yes, eat some peanuts.
Wine was colored with beetroot juice in the 19th century .
Copra is dried coconut kernel. Humans can’t eat much of it due to its high fiber content but it makes perfect feed for ruminants. What are ruminants? They are animals with foreguts i.e. specialized stomachs that ferment the meal after which it is regurgitated and chewed it again. It’s called chewing the cud. Yes, cows are ruminants.
A nautical mile or knot is a pretty practical unit of measure. It is one minute of latitude on any longitude. It’s less arbitrary than a mile or kilometer.
The Anglo-Saxons called August Weodmonath meaning “weed month”.
William Duell was convicted of being an accessory to rape and hanged in Tyburn, England on Nov. 24, 1740. His body swayed for 20 minutes before it was cut down and taken to a medical training college for dissection. As it lay on the board, it was noticed that it was breathing. Duell was still alive. They treated him and by the next day he was fully recovered. He had no memory of the hanging. So what to do with the criminal now that his sentenced hanging was complete? He was given penal exile and shipped to Boston. They believe he died there about 1805.
The richest Philadelphian in history was Stephen Girard, a banker who lived from 1750 to 1831.
You might have heard of Groucho, Harpo, Chico and Zeppo but who was Gummo Marx? He was the original fourth Marx brother. When he entered the Army during World War I, Zeppo took his place as straight man. This is while the brothers were doing vaudeville and before they hit it big in the movies. After leaving the Army, Gummo went into the raincoat business, then had quite a bit of success operating a theatrical agency.