› added 12 years ago

110

TIL there are more variations in the game of chess than there are atoms in the known universe.

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GgGg TIL the French Resistance cut the elevator cables to the Eiffel Tower to keep Hitler from visiting it during his visit when Paris fell. When faced with the prospect of climbing over 1500 stairs he opted out.
R5468 TIL that, during Egypt's early dynasties, rulers were entombed in flat-topped monuments made of clay-brick called mastabas. Imhotep conceived of building a more impressive tomb for his king by stacking mastabas on top of one another, progressively making them smaller, to form Egypt's first pyramid.
d8GDK TIL that giant squid brains are donut shaped and their esophagus runs right through it, making grinding its food into tiny pieces an evolutionary priority
xvl7 TIL in 2010 a single retired Indian Army soldier armed only with a Kukri defeated 40 bandits who attacked a passenger train he was on
5Nvp TIL - TV show Scrubs, used a real phone number on an episode, that went to a prepaid cell phone the cast would hand around to each other, and would answer