› added 6 years ago

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TIL an Atari executive recalled that he showed Bill Gates a game and defeated him 35 of 37 times. When they met again a month later, Gates won or tied every game. He had studied the game until he solved it.

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6nMZ TIL coffee was originally a food, not a drink. Early East African tribes mixed the coffee berries (the unhulled bean) with animal fat, forming the first ‘power bars’.
6Ew67 TIL: Cleopatras' fame as a beautiful seductive master was entirely made by Octavian as a way of explaining how this foreign queen managed to seduce two of Rome's most powerful men, while being described as a beauty, she was best known for her intelligence and charm.
kJJ4 TIL That George Clooney inquired about guest starring on South Park. He was offered the role of Stan’s dog. He accepted, voicing several very good barks. Jay Leno has also provided the meows for Cartman’s cat.
G5o5 TIL Peanut butter in a plastic jar at the supermarket usually has a sell-by date of about 18 months after it hits the shelf. Past this date, if it’s unopened it’s still perfectly good. Opened, peanut butter will slowly develop off-flavors of rancid nuts over the next five or so years.
wdrP TIL Xu QinXian, the commander of China’s most elite army in 1989, refused to open fire on civilians at Tiananmen, stating: “the People’s Army has never in its history been used to suppress the people, I absolutely refuse to besmirch this historical record!” He was court martialled but not executed.