TIL the co-founder of Encyclopædia Britannica was a 4'6" tall Scot with crooked legs and an enormous nose that he would sometimes augment with a papier-mache version. He deliberately rode the talle... (en.wikipedia.org)
John David McAfee, author of the first commercial anti-virus software, was born on Sept 18th 1945 (en.wikipedia.org)
cross-posted from: lemmy.capebreton.social/post/604393...
TIL CJK compatibilty ideographs (often used to put a lot of symbols in fonts such as 着 which displays as the Wii logo on my machine) were originally allocated to support older standards for storing Chinese characters and derivatives in code points (en.wikipedia.org)
Sorry for the confusing title. Basically before Unicode, a bunch of different standards for storing Chinese characters (also used in Korean and Japanese which also have some of their own derivatives) emerged. When Unicode sought to unify every standard they of course had to add compatibility for older standards so for all the...
TIL that Japanese actor Bandō Mitsugorō VIII claimed to be immune to fugu kimo, naturally toxic pufferfish liver. He ate 4 portions in a restaurant with his friends in Kyoto and died 8 hours later. (en.wikipedia.org)
**HAUNTED MANSION Discussion Megapost** 2023-07-28 🏰👻 (en.wikipedia.org)
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TitleHaunted MansionMPAA Rating:PG-13Runtime02:02:00Release Date (USA):July 28, 2023Director:Justin SimienMain Cast:LaKeith Stanfield, Rosario Dawson, Owen Wilson, Tiffany Haddish, Danny DeVito, Jamie Lee Curtis, Chase Dillon, Jared Leto**Summary:**A single mother and her son move into a mansion, only to find that it is haunted....
TIL in 1969, concert promoter Bill Graham was asked to help organize the Woodstock Festival. He agreed under one condition: that Santana would be included in the lineup. After Bill persisted, Santa... (en.wikipedia.org)
TIL about Wu-Tang Clan's 'Once Upon a Time in Shaolin,' an album so exclusive, only one copy was ever produced. (en.wikipedia.org)
There are no circulating copies of the album online and it cannot be commercially exploited until 2103, but it can be played at listening parties....
TIL of the Kingdom of Bailundo, a non-sovereign monarchy located in Angola. Its king was notably deposed in 2021 after being charged of involvement in a murder (en.wikipedia.org)
Ekuikui V sometimes dubbed himself as the “king of (all) Ovimbundu”. In early 2021, Ekuikui V was sentenced to six years in prison by the Provincial Court of Huambo (TPH) for his implication in a murder in 2017. Ekuikui V had issued a judgment in a traditional court case, finding Jacinto Kamutali Epalangana guilty of killing...
Hook an old FPS gamer up. Anyone else fondly miss "assassin mode" from Soldier of Fortune (2000)? (en.wikipedia.org)
I have never played another FPS that had a mode like this, and it was so damn fun and self-balancing....
TIL Alaska P. Davidson was the first female special agent hired by the Bureau of Investigation. Davidson was hired by director William J. Burns in 1922 but was forced to resign by Director J. Edgar... (en.wikipedia.org)
TIL about the CSS Hunley, a confederate submarine that sank three times, killing her entire crew each time. (en.wikipedia.org)
TIL how trash is disposed of in modern large submarines. Trash is deposited into a Trash Disposal Unit (TDU) which collects and compacts it into a galvanized steel can. A ball valve is opened allow... (en.wikipedia.org)
TIL that 80s child actress Judith Barsi made so much money by 4th grade, her family bought a house in West Hills. She died at age 10 when her father killed the entire family. Her final films, “The ... (en.wikipedia.org)
TIL many female insects mate only once in their lives. Insect populations can be controlled by releasing flocks of sterile males into the wild. Females mate with them, never give birth and simply die. (en.wikipedia.org)
TIL a mentally unstable man in Canada cut down a rare golden spruce tree, sacred to Indigenous people, to protest the logging industry. His trial was on the island where he cut down the tree. Feari... (en.wikipedia.org)
TIL that the Longyou Caves, a mysterious network of man-made caves over 2,000 years old, were never recorded in any historical documents and were only rediscovered by local farmers in 1992. (en.wikipedia.org)
TIL that Bhutan doesn't recognize China in any way, shape or form (en.wikipedia.org)
TIL that in 2001, a US navy submarine performed an emergency ballast blow maneuver to impress civilians onboard. It surfaced at high speed directly under a Japanese ship and cut it in half, killing... (en.wikipedia.org)
TIL that Panama hats may take a master weaver up to 8 months to produce, at a price of $200. The best hats can sell outside of Ecuador for 50x what the weaver is paid (en.wikipedia.org)
TIL Scarface (1983) was not only shunned by the Oscars, but actually received a Razzie nomination for Worst Director. (en.wikipedia.org)
TIL that while each individual paying for their meal is called “going Dutch” in English, in Egypt it’s called “English style.” In Pakistan, Thailand and parts of Latin America, it’s “American style... (en.wikipedia.org)
TIL according to international space law, space is defined as common heritage of humanity, which makes territorial claims in space prohibited. The main purposes of this law are to prevent colonial ... (en.wikipedia.org)
TIL just 4 religions: Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism, account for over 77% of the world's population, and 92% of the world is one of those religions or nonreligious, meaning that the o... (en.wikipedia.org)
TIL The X Games have never drug tested athletes (en.wikipedia.org)
TIL that Sue, one of the most complete T. Rex skeletons ever discovered, was discovered on a Sioux reservation. This caused a five-year legal dispute over ownership, after which the skeleton’s owne... (en.wikipedia.org)
