› added 5 years ago

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TIL the English word weird originally meant 'having the power to control fate', which is why Shakespeare named his witches in Macbeth The Weird Sisters. Later depictions of them dressed in odd and strange ways led to the current definition of the word.

kOGng TIL that in general, when asked to picture their own b-day party 20 yrs from now, those who picture the party in first person (thru their own eyes) are likely to save more for retirement than those who picture seeing themselves in 3rd person at the party.
gMpND TIL in 1998, a married couple was left behind during a diving trip to the Great Barrier Reef. Two days passed before anyone realized what had happened. Despite a 5-day search, the couple was never found. A dive slate was later recovered which read "... rescue us before we die..."
xVyd1 TIL that uninsured Americans just die if they can't afford to pay their medical bills.
MADb TIL that when “EMI Films” pulled funding from Monty Python’s “Life of Brian” citing religious reasons, George Harrison mortgaged his house and started “HandMade Films” production company, because he remarked that after reading the script, he just had to see it made
69R0X TIL Stephen Hawking enjoyed reading Leonard Mlodinow 's book "Euclid’s Window" so much that he invited him to coauthor, resulting in "A Briefer History of Time" and "The Grand Design". When waiting for Hawking's response, Mlodinow learned to slow down his thought processes and assess his own ideas