› added 9 years ago

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TIL that ancient Assyrian soldiers reportedly suffered hauntings and visions of the men they killed in battle, suggesting the earliest written example of PTSD sufferers.

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Yp6Rv TIL the Ewoks from Return of the Jedi were based on the Vietcong guerillas who faced a more technologically advanced foe but originally the events on Endor were to be set on the Wookie home planet. It was changed because Wookies had become technologically skilled over the evolution of the series.
E1850 TIL Of Alfred Kroeber who studied a man he named Ishi, the last member of the Yahi tribe who walked into the modern world in 1911. In Ishi's culture, knowing ones name gives you power over them, so Ishi just means Man. This idea of magic in naming things influenced Kroeber's daughter Ursula Le Guin.
erAn TIL France wants to ensure all new rooftops must be topped with either solar panels or plants
M7M4W TIL "Entrance of the gladiators", a piece strongly associated with clowns and circus music, was originally intended to be inspiring marching music for war.
DywV TIL that ancient egyptians once lost a battle because the enemy used cats against them. Egyptians, believing cats to be sacred, refused to hurt the animals.