› added 1 year ago

50

TIL that barnacles were a major problem to old ships and that the 18th-century British Navy gained a great advantage by covering their ships' hulls with copper to stop the barnacles from growing.

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VMAZm TIL the casting director for "Parks and Recreation" called Michael Schur and said, "I just met the weirdest girl I’ve ever met in my life." He met with her and she made him feel very uncomfortable for about an hour. Aubrey Plaza was cast as April.
7rW6x TIL In 2008 a British man traveling to Dubai was sentenced to 4 years in prison after being caught with 0.003g of Cannabis, Which was stuck to his shoe.
GAMpG TIL: Flyting was a medieval contest of insults between two parties often conducted in verse. Insults would involve calling them cowardly or insulting their sexual prowess. Some Kings encourage "court flyting" between poets for entertainment. In some cultures, warriors would flyt before battle.
awZVy TIL that Abolqasem Ferdowsi wrote the Shahnameh, a Persian Epic Poem of 50,000 rhymed couplets - more than twice the length of the Iliad and Odyssey combined! It is considered the world’s longest poem written by a single poet, and is regarded as one of the supreme achievements in world literature.
b6eZp TIL: a homeless man was able to fake being a military sergeant and lived at fort Bragg. during this time he did barracks inspections and apparently kept them well ordered