› added 6 years ago

108

TIL that, in addition to the Taj Mahal, there is the Jal Mahal, a huge, 300 year old compound sitting in the middle of the lake.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

N7obQ TIL Scientists track solar cycles by counting sunspots. A high-powered telescope might show 10 or 20 and a powerful observatory may see 50 to 100, so there is a formula for the official sunspot number, R=k (10g+s)
loO4A TIL that the first documented case of a ‘mail order bride’ / ‘catfishing’ was in 1539, when Henry VIII agreed to marry Anne of Cleves based on a painting of her he was sent. He found her so unattractive that he tried to send her back to Germany, and when he couldn’t, divorced her 6 months later.
M7YAm TIL in 1977 George Lucas made a deal with Steven Spielberg, 2.5% of A New Hope's profit for 2.5% of Close Encounters of the Third Kind's profit (George thought Close Encounters was certain to outperform A New Hope). This deal netted Spielberg over $40M dollars. He still earns money from it today.
rR4Dw TIL that Carlo Kaiser had a decade long career as a professional soccer player, during which time he managed to hide the fact that he was a bad player through various techniques, such as faking injuries, changing teams, and befriending journalists who would write fake articles about him.
e0Yy4 TIL in WW2 US tried to weaponize botulinum. Chinese prostitutes would receive capsules to kill Japanese officers who hired them. The plan was tested on donkeys, who survived so it was scrapped. That research led to the creation of Botox It was later discovered donkeys are immune to botulinum toxin.