› added 12 years ago

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TIL In 1998 Venus and Serena Williams said they could beat any man ranked 200 or worse; both lost handedly to a man ranked #203, who smoked between the matches.

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wLo7W TIL that the ADE 651; an inert rod of metal with a plastic hinge, was sold as a bomb detector. It was used by the militaries of Iraq, Afghanistan and more than a dozen other countries for years before anyone noticed that it did nothing at all.
v1XLR TIL The cartoon character mascots on children’s cereal boxes are deliberately drawn to make direct eye contact with children when on shelves, so that the child fosters loyalty with the character from the cereal brand.
D1Pnv TIL that when roach poisons claim to kill the whole nest, it's not because roaches share food with others. Roaches are cannibals and a single dose of poison can often be eaten many times and still be deadly.
LkdWQ TIL about "naumachia", the Ancient Roman practice of filling a specialised coliseum/amphitheatre basin full of water and forcing convicts and PoWs to fight to the death in staged naval battles, complete with fully armed warships, for the Caesar's entertainment
XE0lR TIL A man from Spain skipped work for 6 years whilst still being payed before anyone noticed.