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TIL Plato's dialogue "Timaeus" presents the shapes of the four elements. Earth would be a cube, air an octahedron, of water an icosahedron, and of fire a tetrahedron. The dodecahedron represents the shape of the universe

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0woyL TIL a Princeton University undergraduate designed an atomic bomb for his term paper. When American nuclear scientists said it would work, the FBI confiscated his paper and classified it. Few months later he was contacted by French and Pakistani officials who offered to buy his design. He got an "A".
Eg0n7 TIL: A few years ago, archaeologist found 3,200 year old cheese in the Egyptian tomb of Ptahmes from 13th century BC. However, brucellosis bacteria was found on it, which would be the oldest evidence of the disease today.
J1yQ1 TIL to find a pianist during the one-day studio recording session of Tom Jones’ hit single ‘It’s not Unusual’ (also of Carlton Dance fame), his drummer Slade (of AC/DC and The Firm Fame) ran across the street to a coffee house and recruited then-unknown Reginald Dwight (now-well-known as Elton John)
N9J1 TIL it is estimated that there are around 110 million landmines planted all over the world, many of them having been there for decades.
8axDV TIL that during WWI, no foreign coaling stations were available to Germany, and its coast was blockaded. So the Germans outfitted a sailing ship as a commerce raider and disguised it as a Norwegian woodcarrier - it sailed past the British blockade and captured 15 ships over the next two years.