› added 1 year ago

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TIL The hosts of the world's most successful motoring show, Top Gear (Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May) don't actually like each other

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epZl5 TIL that Nauru, the third smallest country in the world (8sq miles) had a 10 year civil war in 1878 that saw the island's population fall from ~1500 to >1000, sparked by the introduction of firearms. It eventually ended when the German Empire intervened and confiscated >700 rifles.
R7aEl TIl John Milton was totally blind during the composition of his ten-thousand-line epic poem Paradise Lost. Every morning he would have verses already prepared in his head for his aide to take dicatation. If the aide was late, Milton would complain, saying 'I want to be milked'
Ey5P TIL not only are there radar detectors, but radar detector-detectors, and even radar detector-detector-detectors
Wkn0B TIL Ancient Egyptians were notorious for their subversive political humor and the Romans banned Egyptian advocates from law because all of their joking disrupted the sanctity of the courts.
5nYR TIL that Lisbeth Salander (Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) is based off of what the Stieg Larsson thought Pippi Longstocking might be like as an adult