› added 6 years ago

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TIL that Stephen Wiltshire, autistic savant who draws detailed landscapes from memory and was featured in a BBC documentary as a child, now has his own gallery in London. A 76m panoramic memory drawing of New York is on display at JFK Airport. He was appointed an MBE in 2006.

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XEAJr TIL Jesus' historical name would most likely have been Yeshua ben Yosef haNotzri, which means: "Joshua, son of Joseph of Nazareth"
X0aGX TIL: Christmas has deep pagan roots
nW9eb TIL the words senator and senile both has its roots in the latin word “senex” meaning old man
e0LLD TIL the unit of speed the knot, used extensively throughout the world in aviation, weather, and nautical contexts, comes from literal knots of the "common log" device. This 17th century device was a coil of rope with uniformly spaced knots, attached to a piece of wood shaped like a slice of pie.
R7bj9 TIL, the quietest room in the world measures at -9 dB, and will drive you mad. One reporter lasted up to 45 minutes, and most people leave after half that time, tortured by the eerie sounds of their own body.