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TIL about Robert Evans, a church minister and an amateur astronomer who holds the record for visual discoveries of supernova. Utilizing nothing more than modest telescopes sited in his own backyard and an astonishing visual memory for star fields and galactic features, Evans has discovered 39 supern

LkD6p TIL the current chess grandmaster, Magnus Carlsen, intentionally plays non-book "inaccuracies" during opening (moves he knows aren't the best) to force the game into a non-book position ASAP so his opponents will have to think for themselves instead of going by memorised opening theory
7KgZ TIL In 1939, Georg Elser, a 36-year-old carpenter from a small town in southern Germany, spent 30 nights hollowing out a pillar in a German beer hall in order to plant a bomb. Acting in secret and without the help of anyone else, he had a meticulous plan to kill Adolph Hitler. He almost succeeded.
p8418 TIL that the "boiling frog fable" - the premise that a frog suddenly put into boiling water will jump out, but if put into tepid water which is then slowly brought to a boil, will cook to death - is false: a frog that is gradually heated WILL jump out
E1kmV TIL that "Louie Louie" has been covered by The Beach Boys, The Kinks, Jim Morrison, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, John Lennon, Blondie, Lou Reed, Patti Smith, the Grateful Dead, Otis Redding, The Stooges, Joan Jett, Motorhead, Black Flag, Iggy Pop, and Toots & The Maytals
5mXD Today I Learned that there are libraries around the world in which you can check-out humans as a living book and listen to their stories.