› added 5 months ago

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TIL despite its revolutionary CGI and a milestone in visual effects history, Tron wasn't a huge hit when it came out in summer 1982. It was even disqualified from the Best Special Effects category at Oscars, since the Academy felt that using computer animation was "cheating".

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wL7x8 Til, Heracleitus, sick with Dropsy, tried to cure it by covering himself in cow dung, thinking that it would draw the bad humours out. One version claims that the manure was too wet and he drowned in it, another that it was too dry and he dried out, third version says dogs ate him whole.
5VBdP TIL the term " white elephant gift exchange " comes from a legend about the King of Siam giving rare albino elephants as gifts to those who displeased him. The idea was that the upkeep costs would financially ruin them.
BgppW TIL the TRAPPIST-1 system hosts 7 identified exoplanets and 3 of them (TRAPPIST-1e, TRAPPIST-f, TRAPPIST-g) are Earth-sized and within the solar system's habitable zone
ADx4d TIL of Toupie Lowther, the first openly lesbian woman in sport, who toured the tennis tournaments of Europe in her open-top Mercedes-Benz, had a science degree from the Sorbonne, was a fencer, a practitioner of jujitsu, and assembled a mutlinational all-woman ambulance unit she led to the WWI front.
BrraK TIL that before whistles were introduced, hockey referees used a cowbell. They had to switch to whistles when fans started bringing their own cowbells to disrupt game play.