› added 6 years ago

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TIL that Satoshi Tajiri, creator of Pokémon, loved insect collecting as a child. As more and more land was paved over to make room for Japan's cities, Tajiri became inspired to create the Pokémon video games so that other children could experience the joy of catching bugs just as he had.

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n5gr TIL “anti-social” is commonly misused to describe someone who is actually “asocial”. “Anti-social” describes a person who commits immoral acts.
gMmZL TIL in Japan, establishments like banks & convenience stores visibly keep baseball-sized orange orbs behind the counter. These “anticrime color balls” are filled with bright pigment that burst on impact & are for employees to lob at robbers (or getaway vehicles) to improve the chance of arrest.
kJk05 TIL that the most successful pirate in history was a woman from China named Ching Shih. She commanded the largest fleet that nations couldn’t copy in numbers. She was a former prostitute who married a pirate that immediately considered her his equal & held massive control of the South China Sea.
D1E0Y TIL of William A. Jackson, a former slave who had served Jefferson Davis. He routinely observed communications between Davis and other Confederate officials. When he fled north in 1861, he gave the Union detailed information about Confederate military deployments, supply issues, and planning.
xVXwD TIL that the Hubble Telescope can read newspaper print from 1 mile away.