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TIL It is estimated that 16 gorillas were killed during the Rwandan war, but the overall population increased from 320 to 355. Gorillas survived because they moved father up the mountains, away from violent humans and no faction wanted the bad publicity of being responsible for a gorilla death

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BZPb TIL artist Chuck Close, renowned for his large photo-realistic portraits, suffered a stroke at age 48 which left him paralyzed from the neck down. However, he continued painting, using chunks of paper, finger prints and paint blobs to create the same photo-realism effect, just at a lower resolution.
M457 TIL a woman waited nearly 24 hours in the waiting room of an NYC hospital before falling over and dying. She was then ignored for another hour before someone finally noticed her.
XEvNj TIL the three Apollo 11 astronauts could not get life insurance for their historic space moon shot. To provide for their families in case of catastrophic failure, they autographed commemorative postcards, a friend had them postmarked the day of the launch and distributed to their families.
yQXYV TIL The Vatican has a telescope in Arizona. The Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope (VATT) is part of the Mount Graham International Observatory and is operated by the Vatican Observatory, one of the oldest astronomical research institutions in the world.
d8WYd TIL male black-widow spiders tend to select their mates by determining if the female has eaten already to avoid being eaten themselves.