› added 1 year ago

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TIL that Tolkien realized he had created a moral dilemma when writing orcs. They're supposed to be a purely evil race for the heroes to cut through without guilt, but they could talk and knew about morality, so by Tolkien's beliefs, they couldn't be pure evil and should be given mercy if possible.

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OK7X TIL that neanderthals didn’t rely on lightning strikes to make fire, instead, they used chemistry, by putting manganese dioxide on wood to lower the temperature required to create a flame.
p8vNG TIL Canadian-born Playboy Playmate Shera Bechard and a girlfriend of Hugh Hefner qualified for U.S. 'Genius' visa that the U.S. government reserves for "individuals with extraordinary ability"
V6QQ TIL that Pyrrhus of Epirus, an ancient Greek General, died while fighting an enemy soldier in the streets of Sparta. The soldier’s mother, who was watching their battle from a rooftop, threw a tile that hit Pyrrhus in the head and paralyzed him, sealing his fate.
BrXVK TIL barns are painted red because old paint recipes contained ferrous oxide (rust). Rust was plentiful on farms and because it killed fungi and mosses that might grow on barns, and it was very effective as a sealant. It turned the mixture red in color.
R7ZEl TIL About a book called “The Secret (treasure hunt)”. It contains 12 cryptic paintings associated with 12 cryptic riddles you must decipher in order to dig up a key to the loot buried around the U.S. and Canada. Only 3 have been discovered since 1982.