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TIL that jousting is the official state sport of Maryland

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V6Zp TIL that the “cost per GFLOPS” (the cost for a computer that would operate at one billion floating-point operations per second) in 1961 was of $1,100,000,000,000 ($1.1 trillion), while nowadays it is of merely $0.08.
v8OL TIL: That a fan once sent Tolkien a goblet with the words from the One Ring inscribed on it in the Black Speech of Mordor. The powerful spell in an accursed tongue led the author to never drink from it. Instead, he used it as an ashtray.
pgyp TIL that rice fields are flooded primarily for weed control, not because it provides optimal growing conditions for the rice plants, as I had always presumed.
4l5J TIL Danielle Lierow is a girl who was severely neglected since birth, left in a dark room as a toddler, and never learned how to talk, eat, or hold a doll. She was adopted into a loving home in 2007 and in 2014 was 15 years old in high school and able to say “I love you” to her adoptive father.
VM9WG TIL Michaelangelo made fake ancient art. While in Florence, he was asked to make a statue look like an ancient work so it would be easier to sell. One piece was sold to Cardinal Raffaele Riario who upon finding out the piece was a fraud was so impressed that he invited Michaelangelo to Rome.