› added 9 years ago

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TIL that Novelist Stephen King said that Professor Umbridge from the Harry Potter series is the “greatest make-believe villain to come along since Hannibal Lecter.”

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PYkeO TIL The inaugural winner of the Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix, William Grover-Williams, was a French secret agent responsible for organizing a resistance network who was executed by the Nazis.
QNnvE TIL that Sylvester Graham (of Graham Cracker fame), the original clean-eating guru and vegetarian pioneer who shunned alcohol, lust, meat, and even white bread, died at age 57 of complications from an opium enema
epnLD TIL about windcatchers - towers to catch winds for natural ventilation of buildings without electricity. Windcatchers were an important architectural element in Persia and a solution for cooling. The warm air was cooled by the soil and water in the channel and released into the interior.
vP8bj TIL the first possible tornado report in the United States occurred in July 1643. The report was recorded by Massachusetts Governor and weather enthusiast John Winthrop, who observed a sudden gust that whipped up dust, lifted his meeting house, and killed a nearby observer with a fallen tree.
P1QnO TIL that people paint penises outside houses and buildings in Bhutan to ward off evil and good luck.