› added 9 years ago

171

TIL there’s a compression algorithm that shrinks text to half the size of what popular compressors can achieve, but it takes 1000x more time and 30x more RAM. It shrinks Wikipedia to 1/8 its size, takes 3 days per Gb.

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A44 TIL 21 people died in “The Great Molasses Flood” of 1919. More than 90 years later, some streets in Boston still “bleed” molasses on hot days.
ArXn TIL that ESPN’s Mike Tirico once sent harassing emails to a female producer, then later confronted her saying, “If I was single, I would throw you on the table right here and fuck your brains out.” He then proceeded to follow her in his car for miles down I-84 before she took an exit in a panic
gWYX TIL that thirteenth century emperor Frederick II attempted to raise children without human contact to see if they developed a natural language. The children did not survive.
69WmZ TIL about the ‘Yakhchal’ which is an ancient structure used to produce, harvest, and store ice.
94a7 TIL During a city-wide ‘lockdown’ after the Boston Marathon bombings, selected Dunkin’ Donuts locations were ordered to remain open to serve police despite the closing of the vast majority of city businesses.