› added 8 years ago

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TIL that in 1372, the architect Yi Kaizhan was hired to build a fort along the Great Wall of China, and he ordered the exact number of bricks he needed. When his judgement was questioned, he ordered one more brick. The extra brick was never used.

b9adj TIL Roman Polanski wanted to film a violent and nihilistic version of Macbeth in response to his wife and unborn child's murder. No studio would finance it given the parallels with his own life. But Hugh Hefner financed the movie. He had been partying with a Playboy Exec on the night of the murders.
1aNoP TIL magpie birds in Australia regularly swoop-attack cyclists and walkers who get too close to their nests. Thousands of attacks happen annually, mostly a nuisance but also causing hundreds of injuries. In 2018, a toddler sitting in a stroller was almost blinded by a magpie attacking his face.
WkDQA TIL: the Wow! signal, discovered by volunteers, remains the strongest evidence of extraterrestrial communication. The "Big Ear" observatory was since dismantled to make room for a golf course expansion.
mxDny TIL Las Fallas is an annual Festival in Valencia, Spain. The monuments that are built represent satiric scenes in order to criticise popular aspects of the society such as politics and the current social situation. The Fallas then are burnt at the final event called "la cremá"
rNd6e TIL in the earliest depictions of Jesus from the 3rd century, he was presented as a beardless man wearing Roman clothes