› added 1 year ago

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TIL of mondegreens, a mishearing of a phrase in a way that gives it a new meaning. The national anthem of the U.S. is highly susceptible to the creation of mondegreens, as "O say can you see" has been misinterpreted as "José, can you see", and "by the dawn's early light" as "by the donzerly light"

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VMVQm TIL that Arthur Conan Doyle loosely based Sherlock Holmes on Dr Joseph Bell, a Scottish surgeon who was known for his skills in observation. Dr Bell would often pick a stranger, and by observing him, deduce his occupation and recent activities. He was considered a pioneer in forensic science.
gje7 TIL that in Quake III Arena, when developers needed to calculate x^(-½), one used a piece of code and the hexadecimal number 0x5f3759df to calculate it about 4 times faster than floating-point division. It was so strange another developer commented in the code “what the fuck?”
W7kw8 TIL Jerry Springer was born in a London subway station, which was being used as a bomb shelter in WWII
loVL5 TIL That Albus Dumbledore's Chair From The Harry Potter Films Was The Inspired By The Coronation Chair AKA King Edward's Chair.
l1bK TIL that there is a word in Italian “Giacca civetta” meaning “Owl Jacket” which is a term for the second jacket bought with a suit, which is left draped over the back of your chair at work (giving the impression of being there) while you wear the other on the town boozing and wooing women.