› added 4 years ago

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TIL that George R.R. Martin still writes his "A Song of Ice and Fire" books on a 1980's MS-DOS computer running the text-processing program Wordstar 4.0

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69Ay8 TIL: TIL that marshmallows were originally made from a plant called marshmallow (mallows that grew in marshes). The root of the marshmallow plant is high in mucilage, which is a type of gel that gives marshmallows their chewy texture. Today, marshmallows are no longer made from the plant.
XxWP TIL that the tufts of fur that grow inside a cat’s ears are called furnishings
XEEJ6 TIL John Williams has 50 Oscar nominations and 5 wins, which averages him one nomination for every three films he has composed. He also has more Oscar nominations than any other living person.
wL1K7 TIL about Mary the Jewess, one of the first alchemical writers, living between the first and third centuries AD. She is credited with the invention of several kinds of chemical apparatus and is considered to be the first true alchemist of the Western world.
QJ64M TIL During the height of the Cold War, the US built an embassy in Moscow that was so riddled with eavesdropping equipment, by 1985 the building was abandoned after spending $136 million. Eventually, the embassy was taken apart brick by brick and rebuilt over 15 years at a cost of $240 million.