› added 9 years ago

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TIL In Ancient Rome, flaming war pigs were used to counter war elephants. The siege of Megara in 266 BC was broken when Megarians doused pigs in pitch, set them alight and drove them towards the enemy’s massed war elephants. The elephants bolted in terror, killing a large number of soldiers.

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WkaBB TIL of Anton's syndrome, a disorder where people believe they can see when in fact, they are cortically blind. They can't be convinced otherwise though and will be very offended if you point their blindness out and start confabulating/making things up when asked what exactly they are seeing.
nDAG TIL Italy’s Credem Bank accepts parmesan cheese from local producers in exchange for bank loans. The offered loans are for up to 24 months, equal to the time it takes the parmesan to age. If the loan defaults, the cheese is sold at market price. 440,000 parmesan wheels (worth $250M) are stored there
LogQ TIL Seven Eleven was bought out by Seven Eleven Japan and has been fully Japanese owned since 2005
Ax7g TIL that a star was discovered whose center is an enormous diamond, of 10 billion trillion trillion carats; astronomers called the diamond star “Lucy”
69NNm TIL of Armand Gagné, a peasant boy who was adopted by Marie Antoinette. After her carriage almost ran over the 5-year-old, she became so delighted with his appearance that she took him with her. The boy did not want to go and wished to stay with his family but she forcibly adopted him anyway.