› added 3 months ago

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TIL that the Roman emperor Vespasian did not in fact issue a tax on urinating in public latrines but instead on the distribution of urine collected from Rome's public urinals

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9YORG TIL of Bartholomäus Traubeck, an artist and engineer who discovered how to make music from tree rings. “A record player that plays slices of wood, [in which] year ring data is translated into music." The trees year rings are analyzed and this data is used to generate piano music.
J9yj TIL one man’s genes from 4000-6000 years ago contributes to approximately 50% of the male population in 11 European countries.
7ENb TIL that Will Smith refused to play the role of Mohammed Ali for 8 years, fearing he wasn’t up for the job of playing the man he called the “greatest figure over the last 100 years”, stating “I absolutely, positively did not want to be the dude that messed up the Muhammad Ali story.”
Woao TIL Ice Cube produced a reality TV in 2006 called Black.White., where a black family wore white face and a white family wore black face while living together.
xVV6D TIL the wreck of the Titanic is so deep in the ocean that there’s very little oxygen so it doesnt really rust. Instead it is being slowly consumed by anaerobic bacteria (a kind that doesn’t need oxygen to live). Within a few hundred years, a pile of iron ore will be all that remains of the titanic.