› added 9 years ago

82

TIL that Android was originally conceived as a camera operating system.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

ADnrw TIL that the 1990's cult hit "Event Horizon" was heavily inspired by Warhammer 40,000 and many fans of the tabletop strategy game consider the movie to be an unofficial prequel
ANdG7 TIL Nearly half the world’s mined diamonds (by carats) are mined outside of Africa.
dbJr TIL of Ossip Bernstein, a famous chess grandmaster, who was sentenced to death by the Bolsheviks in 1918. While he was facing the firing squad, a russian officer that heard his name offered him the chance to prove his identity in a game of chess. He beat the officer and was released.
wKW TIL tennis players’ grunts offer the grunter an advantage. Not because the noise is distracting, but because it covers up the sound the racket makes when it hits the ball, making it difficult to judge how hard it’s hit and with what spin the ball has.
jNaea TIL 11,000 year old footprints of giant sloths have been found preserved in gypsum in New Mexico. Some also have human footprints within them, which effectively records all the action of a sloth hunt