› added 12 years ago

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TIL Isaac Newton was like Dirty Harry in 17th century London - chasing counterfeiters of the Royal Mint, bribing crooks for info, threatening criminals and their famlies, eventually focusing on his nemesis. And then he burned all his notes to cover his dirty ways of catching crooks.

16Z67 TIL of the Polynesian legend of Mahuika – goddess of fire and the grandmother of Māui. She married Auahi-roa (a comet) and their children were the fingernails of fire on Mahuika's hand. Years later, Māui retrieved the fingernails and planted them in the trees used for making fire.
Lkvjm TIL that Cillian Murphy was vegetarian for about 15 years prior to working on Peaky Blinders. Saying it was never a moral decision. It was more that he was worried about getting mad cow disease.
9YlRX TIL a UC Berkeley study found that drivers of luxury cars such as BMW and Mercedes are less considerate of others on the road.
W7woN TIL; The title, "October Sky", of the 1999 biographical movie about teens studying rocketry as an escape from their coal town was an anagram of the novel it was based on, "Rocket Boys". The novel was then re-released under the title "October Sky" to capitalize on the interest in the movie.
E196w TIL in 1981, a German landlord evicted a tenant after they spread surströmming brine, the world's smelliest food, in the building's stairwell. When the landlord was taken to court, the court ruled in favor of the landlord after they demonstrated their case by opening a can inside the courtroom.