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TIL: Neanderthals were distilling tar 200 thousand years ago in Europe

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via reddit.com

Bgamb TIL that when a metaphor stops needing its imagery to be understood and becomes idiomatic ("footage", "fly off the handle", "blow off steam"), it is considered "dead".
JYvpQ TIL of Tek Sing often referred to as "Titanic of the East". Happening 90 years before the Titanic went down, the Tek Sing was overloaded with cargo and also carried 1,600 emigrants, akin to the Titanic they were low on lifeboats from the start. Less than 190 people were rescued.
aWKL TIL that USMC Scout Sniper training includes having to move within 200 yards of an observation post and shoot at it twice without being spotted, the second shot with an indicator within 10 yards of the sniper. To pass the course you have to remain unseen at least twice.
QJY6e TIL that Henry VIII was sometimes called "Old Coppernose." He issued debased coins to fund wars and one coin was mostly copper with a thin layer of silver on top. The coin had a portrait of Henry and his projecting nose caused the silver to wear off first exposing the copper underneath.
W7LRd TIL the burial site of Eve, which allegedly gave the ancient Arabian city of Jeddah (grandmother) its name, was cemented over by Saudi authorities in 1975