› added 5 years ago

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TIL that in 2012, a “guru” tricked a French family out of €4.5M by convincing them that they were the target of a secret conspiracy and that their lives were in danger. He persuaded them into barricading themselves into their family chateau, and then in a suburban house in Oxford.

Read more theguardian.com

via reddit.com

NayE TIL: The Antiques Roadshow appraised a grotesque jug to be worth $50,000, comparing it to a Picasso. Unknown to the appraiser, it was actually made by some random high school kid over 40 years ago. After finding out, he changed his appraisal to $5k, saying it was “not bad for a high schooler”
ANa4w TIL that ‘Shawshank Redemption’, the highest-rated IMDb film of all time, was nominated for seven Oscars - but won none.
OoyQR TIL that William McAdoo's decision to close the NYSE for 4 months in 1914 to prevent Europeans from selling American securities and exchanging proceeds for USD, and then gold, led to a decisive shift in the global balance of economic power, from Europe to the USA
0wj1L TIL of Georg Konrad Morgen, an SS judge who prosecuted numerous fellow Nazis for various crimes such as corruption and murder, including those committed in the concentration camp system. After World War II, he testified at the Nuremberg trials against his former colleagues.
N8E6 TIL that the Pillars of Creation were destroyed by a supernova 6000 years ago