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TIL Indian military scientists developed a chili grenade made with ghost pepper

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9gDX TIL Quake III Arena, needing to calculate x^(-½) quickly, used a piece of code so strange, the developers commented the code with “evil floating point bit level hacking” and “what the fuck?”
mxDAE TIL of the Hmong people, who communicate by whistling - the valleys of the Himalayas they live in make for ideal transmission, sometimes carried as far as 8km. They even perform whistling courtship ceremonies, and once in a relationship, lovers can make up their own ‘secret’ syllables!
LQmnm TIL the Autonomous Republic of Northern Epirus lasted for just under 8 months in 1914
VeDk TIL in 1968, 20-year-old Barbara Mackle was kidnapped and buried alive inside a box containing an air pump, a lamp, water laced with sedatives, and food. Two plastic pipes provided her with outside air. Her kidnappers demanded and received a $500,000 ransom, and she was rescued three days later.
rRejy TIL the time between the first and last dynasty of ancient Egypt is more than 1000 years longer than between the last dynasty and now