› added 4 months ago

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TIL a medieval chess piece orginally bought for £5 in 1964, then kept in a drawer for decades, sold for £735K in 2019. It was discovered the warder (equivalent to a rook) is one of the five major pieces (1 knight, 4 warders) missing from the 1831 Lewis chessman hoard of four 12th century chess sets.

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nem5b TIL that late actor Michael Clarke Duncan was assigned to protect Notorious B.I.G. on the night he was killed, but Duncan switched assignments at the last minute. The death caused Duncan to quit working as a bodyguard and pursue acting full-time.
oZyr TIL: Empedocles, 5th century Greek philosopher most known for the development of the idea of the Four Elements, also concluded that matter could neither be created nor destroyed, and developed a theory of evolution concluding that form followed function and that the most fit survived.
D1Vyr TIL humid air is lighter than dry air. This is why low-pressure areas (L) bring the rain, not the high-pressure areas (H). And this is because water (H2O) molecules are actually lighter than Oxygen (O2) and Nitrogen (N2) that make up the atmosphere.
NgP6 TIL The US invasion of Iraq was originally called ‘Operation Iraqi Liberation’, but was quickly changed after realizing that spelled 'OIL’.
6ENLl TIL During his 2009 TED talk, Bill Gates opened a jar of mosquitoes saying “Malaria is spread by mosquitoes. I brought some… I’ll let them roam around. There is no reason only poor people should be infected” and waited for about a minute before telling the audience that the bugs were malaria-free.