› added 8 years ago

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TIL of a Malawian teenager who taught himself how to build a windmill out of junk and bring power to his village. He then went on to build a second, larger windmill to power irrigation pumps. He did this all from books he read in the library.

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epRp6 TIL in 2016, a Saudi princess was enraged after a plumber took photos of her bathroom. She made her bodyguard beat him up and then forced him to kiss her feet. She left France—this happened in her luxury apartment in Paris—and was tried in absentia. She received a 10-month suspended sentence.
4k07w TIL about Batesian mimicry: a non-poisonous butterfly mimics the bright colors of poisonous ones. Predators avoiding the poisonous colors prey on dark-colored butterflies, favoring the survival of mimics. This increases the frequency of alleles for mimicry in the non-poisonous population.
pEjb TIL that conditions seemed so bleak in America during the Great Depression that people in Cameroon sent $3.77 to New York for food relief
YpklW TIL of Endal the service dog. After Endal's owner was knocked out of a wheelchair by a passing car, Endal put him in the recovery position, covered him with a blanket from his wheelchair, retrieved his phone from under the car, and went into a nearby hotel to get help.
pojA TIL In the original script of the Matrix film, Switch changed genders upon entering the Matrix, which coined their name, Switch. This may be a reflection of Lana Wachowski’s struggles with her gender identity, which were unknown to the public at the time.