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TIL after only 4 years of primary school, German children are placed on one of four tracks: Hauptschule for less academic students, Realschule for intermediary students, Gymnasium for academic students, or Gesamtschule (comprehensive school). Only Gymnasium entitles one to attend university

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EgZpX TIL that chimney sweeping in Germany is protected by a "frankly medieval" guild system. The article also talks about the sweeps' involvement in the country's dark past, the legal requirement to let sweeps in and how freelance competition provoked legal backlash (at time of publication)
oBMbr TIL it is rumored that Pablo Escobar committed suicide. It was never confirmed that a police officer fired the fatal shot through his ear. His brothers insisted "he would say to me every day that if he was really cornered without a way out, he would 'shoot himself through the ear'"
E1vBX TIL In the 1690s, the Scottish tried to start a colony in Panama, but the Spanish and English wiped them out.
KbPw TIL the ellipsis (three dots…) is it’s own Unicode character (U+2026). Try highlighting just one of these dots… This is why you get interesting spacing when typing out strings of periods on Microsoft Word, it tries to autocorrect 3 periods in a row into ellipses thus slightly changing the spacing.
dDjQK TIL in 1963 Hugh Hefner was arrested for promoting obscene literature after he published an issue of Playboy featuring nude shots of Jayne Mansfield in bed with a man present. The case went to trial and resulted in a hung jury.