› added 5 years ago

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TIL about Terry A. Davis, creator of the free operating software Temple OS. Diagnosed with schizophrenia in his early 20's, Davis created the software because he stated that God commanded him to. He was able to finish most of the software by himself before his untimely death in 2018.

wL8LP TIL of cryptomnesia - when you forget something and then remember it as if it's an original thought. This can cause unintentional plagiarism or convince you that you've got a brilliant new idea, only to be disappointed when it's already been done.
nWweP TIL of Abe no Nakamaro. A Japanese poet, he visited Tang Dynasty China as an Envoy of Japan. He failed to go home due to repeated shipwrecks and a Chinese rebellion, so he accepted a government post in the Tang Dynasty and was so talented that he was appointed governor of Vietnam.
xMZ5 TIL that in Feudal Japan, there was an untouchable caste comprised of “impure” professions such as executioners, undertakers, workers in slaughterhouses, butchers or tanners. 400 years later, descendants of this caste may still face discrimination.
9wDOm TIL during World War II, Allied prisoners of war in Colditz Castle built a full-size glider plane in the attic. The plan was to cut a hole in the roof from the attic and then fly the plane to safety. It never flew, but it was completed shortly before the POWs were liberated.
wLm4M TIL that Jamaican rapper Shaggy, famous for his hit "It Wasn't Me," served as a US Marine in Operation Desert Storm during the First Persian Gulf War.