› added 12 years ago

144

TIL that a Roman merchant who sold fake jewels was sentenced to face a lion in the arena. When the gate finally opened, a chicken walked out. Emperor Gallienus proclaimed “He practiced deceit and then had it practiced on him.”

Read more smithsonianmag.com

via reddit.com

GA5GN TIL Duke Nukem Forever spent more than 14 years in development, from 1997 to 2011. It was released to mostly negative reviews
yVQ4V TIL that a parietal eye, also known as a third eye or pineal eye, is a part of the epithalamus present in some vertebrates. The eye is located at top of the head, is photoreceptive and is associated with the pineal gland, regulating circadian rhythmicity and hormone production for thermoregulation.
BOBD TIL a growing number of wealthy women are getting cosmetic surgery know as Blowtox - Botox injections in the scalp. This stops nerves from activating sweat glands so they can emerge from the gym with their hair still looking blow-dried.
jNOKE TIL: Big circles of brick set in the pavement of some San Francisco intersections aren't meant as old-timey street decoration. They mark buried emergency water tanks in case the city ever catches fire again. They were put in after The Great Fire of 1906 (the big earthquake then broke water mains).
v1OKr TIL after 30 WWII veterans in their mid-nineties were shown ‘Dunkirk,’ the general consensus among them was that they loved the film and thought it captured events very accurately, but “thought the soundtrack was louder than the actual bombardment.” The comment amused Nolan greatly.