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TIL That the domesticated hamsters we now call pets are all descended from one “Adam and Eve” like pair captured in Aleppo, Syria in 1930.

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16oed TIL that there are more possible iterations of a game of chess than there are atoms in the known universe. The number of possible unique chess games is estimated to be 10^120, which is vastly greater than the estimated number of atoms in the observable universe, which is around 10^80
V48G TIL of “fagging”, a practice in British private schools where younger students were required to act as personal servants to senior students (the fag-masters). Sexual abuse was rampant in this system.
ADA6g TIL The Neptunes (Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo) produced 43 percent of songs on the radio in the US at one point in 2003
wL4l1 TIL that around 400,000 labourers died during the construction of the Great Wall of China and many of these labourers were buried within the wall itself.
LkRyP TIL about Jerome Kerviel who was fined $6.7 billion for unauthorized stock trading, making him the most indebted man in the world