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TIL: There’s an 2,000 year-old analog computer called the Antikythera mechanism

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4XeVX TIL that Super Mario is named after real-life businessman Mario Segale, who was renting out a warehouse to Nintendo. After Nintendo fell far behind on rent, Segale did not evict them but gave them a second chance to come up with the money. Nintendo succeeded and named their main character after him.
69vpZ TIL that Holy Trinity Church, London hosts an annual Clowns International service honouring deceased clowns and is attended by clowns in full costume. It's also home to the The Clown Egg Register. This is an archive of painted ceramic eggs that serve as a record of individual clowns' make-up design.
BY8x TIL that the US government during WW2 asked the press to avoid discussing “polonium, uranium, ytterbium, hafnium, protactinium, radium, rhenium, thorium, deuterium”. Only uranium was secret, for the Manhattan Project, but was listed with the other elements to hide its importance.
KL8B TIL:In 1993 a cult released anthrax spores into the atmosphere infecting 500,000 … luckily the spores they had were antidotes and immunised the infected
woAkM TIL That third class gates on the Titanic weren't actually locked. In many cases, they were only waist level. Third class passengers couldn't navigate the complex passageways — and all the signs were in English, giving them little opportunity to find their way to the deck.