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TIL: About the TF2 Coconut which is a highly detailed JPEG of a coconut in Team Fortress 2 game files. Despite being unused anywhere within the game, deleting it from the computer breaks the game.

Read more thegamer.com

via reddit.com

VMJlG TIL the Catholic Church has a zero-tolerance policy on revealing confessions. If a Catholic priest reveals anything someone confessed to him, he is automatically excommunicated and can only be forgiven by the Pope.
8aDgV TIL that during the early 1900s, a debate raged about whether or not it was acceptable to portray wild animals with human-like thoughts and emotions in nature writing. President Teddy Roosevelt got involved, harshly criticizing writers who anthropomorphized wildlife—and dubbing them "nature fakers".
E18eW TIL in ancient Rome, famous gladiators endorsed products just like modern athletes do. Some of these endorsements have survived in ancient frescoes. The makers of the film Gladiator downplayed this historical angle on the assumption that modern audiences would not believe it.
4XWba TIL of Amsterdam Time, UTC +00:20 and used from 1909 until the Nazis invaded in 1940. That made the Netherlands 20 minutes ahead of London. The reason for this offset was that it was centered on the mean solar time of the tower of the Westerkerk Church in Amsterdam and not on Greenwich Mean Time.
PY9Lw TIL when Stephen Hawking met with the Pope in the Vatican, the Pope knelt down when he had trouble understand Hawking. This prompted one scientist in the room to say that "things certainly have changed since Galileo."