› added 2 years ago

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TIL of the 2000 year old Fayum mummy portraits that depicted deceased individuals in near realist style portraits.

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M74dB TIL that despite being 8369 times bigger than Washington DC, Alaska has only 50k more people living in it.
W77lN TIL slime molds are problem solvers, scooting around on pseudopods before ballooning to release their spores. They can find the shortest path through a maze, and they inspired a slime-mold algorithm that researchers used to map filaments of dark matter connecting galaxies in the universe.
VMDyQ TIL of the HMS Cockchafer, a British gunboat involved in the Wanhsien Incident. Chinese soldiers tried to seize British merchant ships as compensation for a boat accidentally sunk by a British ship and the Cockchafer intervened; the Cockchafer killed over 1000 Chinese and destroyed 1000 buildings.
bY9Q TIL at age 15, Jim Carrey quit school and became a janitor to support his family. They were living out of a van.
VMgLQ TIL that, back in 1979, a cryonics company which promised to freeze and preserve your brain for later revival went bust, and all the bodies thawed out.