› added 11 years ago

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TIL When Paris fell to the Nazis on June 14, 1940, French resistance fighters cut the elevator cables to the Eiffel Tower. This meant that if Hitler wanted to hoist a swastika flag, a soldier would have to climb the roughly 1710 stairs to the summit platform.

Ypl7Z TIL scientific studies have shown that body language (e.g. fidgeting or lack of eye contact) is not a reliable indicator of a person’s thoughts or intentions. Despite this body language analysis is commonly used by the legal system, media and general public.
N7Eeb TIL that over 1 million people are buried on a small island in NY. Hart Island has been home to a confederate prison, asylum and “boys reformatory” dating as far back as 1869. Many of New York’s most vulnerable have found their way to this island and are laid in mass graves 3 caskets deep.
9eG7 TIL that the U.S. department of state ranks 70 world languages based on how difficult they are for an English speaker to learn. Among the easiest are French and Italian. Among the hardest are Arabic and Chinese.
KOQjR TIL for Disney's Snow White, animators had difficulties adding the color red to Snow White's cheeks: "she looked like a clown with painted cheeks". That is until one of the ink-and-paint girls suggested they use real blush on the animation cells. Thus, every scene with Snow White has real makeup.
707L TIL at a Marine Mammal Studies Institute, dolphins were trained to turn in trash that fell into the pools in exchange for fish. One dolphin was smart enough to hide pieces of paper under a rock, tearing off smaller pieces from the paper in order to get more fish out of it.