› added 11 years ago

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TIL: a man modified a bulldozer into a tank and systematically destroyed several buildings in his town. Police were helpless and the rampage ended when the driver took his own life.

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M7Qem TIL I learned how Champollion cracked the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic writing. The reason why he succeeded -23 years after the Rosetta Stone discovery- is that he spoke Coptic, and it meant that the sounds written in hieroglyphs made sense to him.
MKQK TIL William the Conqueror’s funeral had to be rushed because of the foul smell of his bowels, which had burst when his too-large body was forced into his too-small tomb.
neD19 TIL that mystery writer and the inventor of the detective novel Edgar Allen Poe's death is actually a mystery itself. The death certificate and medical records were lost and there is no definitive cause of death.
6OBX TIL Women are physiologically better at distinguishing color, while men better distinguish moving objects.
gRg8 TIL that a game show has tested the idea of fairness across cultures. In the US, the audience helps contestants. In Russia, they purposefully give the wrong answer. In France, they give the wrong answer if they feel the contestant isn’t smart enough to deserve to win the money