› added 10 years ago

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TIL After Hurricane Katrina, the emir of Qatar donated $100 million to New Orleans, intended to help rebuild housing, hospitals and schools.

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W7ddL TIL that Golems, which are popular creatures in many fantasy games and media, originate from Jewish folklore. The most famous Golem narrative in Jewish folklore comes from late 16th-century Prague and involves the creation of a Golem to protect the Jewish community.
4XPnR TIL that the founder of the Mughal Empire, Babur, founded his massive empire after giving up on his original dreams: the reconquest of his tiny Ferghana homeland from Uzbek invaders. Saddened by a third defeat, Babur went to India to flee the Uzbeks, founding his empire in the process.
nWnNo TIL that Oliver North, of Iran-Contra fame, collaborated on an episode of "The Americans" dealing with Contras.
oRK5Y TIL that the Comic Sans font was directly inspired by the comics "Watchmen" and "The Dark Knight Returns." It was originally built for a user friendly version of Microsoft, codenamed Bob, and thus the creator used the comics he had on hand as inspiration to make the font appear light-hearted
EgYQV TIL No hurricane has ever crossed the equator. Coriolis forces are 0 at the equator, and they are needed to make a storm spin. A wiki page is dedicated to the rare storm that gets within 3°