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TIL the Incas had a data storage/sharing device called "quipus" [kee-poos] in which cords of different colors and sizes were used to pass information down through generations by tying knots in them at different intervals. Unfortunately the ability to translate the data has been lost.

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b9ZR7 TIL ducklings indicate signs of abstract thinking. Ducklings demonstrated the ability to think abstractly within hours of being hatched, distinguishing the concepts of “same” and “different” with success.
xKnk TIL According to Herodotus a corrupt judge accepted a bribe and delivered an unjust verdict. Cambyses II of Persia had him arrested and flayed alive. His skin was then used to cover the seat in which his son would sit in judgment.
89b4 TIL an officer in the American Civil War, Benjamin Runkle, was mistakenly left for dead on the battlefield. An obituary was written for him while he was still alive, but ironically Runkle outlived the man who wrote it, and in return wrote an obituary for his obituary writer
rvxe TIL that the founding father of Dubai said this about his city’s future: “My grandfather rode a camel, my father rode a camel, I drive a Mercedes, my son drives a Land Rover, his son will drive a Land Rover, but his son will ride a camel”
korB TIL that candles lit in microgravity (i.e., space) burn not with a yellow, tapered flame, but with a spherical, nearly invisible blue flame