› added 2 months ago

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TIL: The Fire Lance was one of the first gunpowder based weapons and is seen as an ancestor of firearms. A pyrotechnic device is attached to a polearm which gives it flamethrower and shotgun like effects, but only for one or two shots. The Mongols feared the weapon after the Jin used it in 1233

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via reddit.com

GmV4 TIL There was a Parrot named Alex that had a vocabulary of over 100 words. He was said to have the intelligence of a 5 year old. The last words he said to his trainer before passing away were “See you tomorrow, be good. I love you!”
QAYe TIL that one of the reasons that so many Disney movies feature orphans is Walt Disney’s guilt over his mother’s death from a gas leak in the house he bought her.
1aJpV TIL of Ronald Alexander, who appeared on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" to accept a $500,000 donation from Lowes for his crumbling elementary school in Detroit. Months later he and 12 other principals were convicted of taking $900,000 in bribes from a school supply scam.
rNl6d TIL that the video game company SNK—makers of the 'King of Fighters' and 'Metal Slug' games—is now (96.18%) owned by Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia, through his MiSK Foundation.
BgOJb TIL USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor has enough residual oil to continue seeping for hundreds of years, but the hull is forecasted to deteriorate or collapse in 150 years.