› added 4 years ago

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TIL of Jean-Dominique Bauby, a man who had a stroke at 43 years old and after a 20-day coma, awoke to find that he was almost fully paralyzed; he could only use his left eyelid. He wrote a memoir, by blinking when the correct letter was said by a person reciting the alphabet over and over again.

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xxB1 TIL HBO hired 160 lawyers in order to make their 2015 documentary about Scientology.
v1e0j TIL of the Eidophone, an instrument which created images from the interaction of voice and materials. Inventor Margaret Watts-Hughes, a Welsh singer, was working with a device similar to Bell's Photophone when she noticed perfect geometrical patterns formed according to clarity and calibre of voice.
Bmad TIL you are required in Svalbard to carry a rifle when leaving a settlement, in order to fend off polar bears
V1LB TIL Wagner and Nietzsche were very close friends, until they had a cat-fight and Wagner wrote a letter to Nietzsche’s physician explaining that all his health problems (later discovered to be syphilis) were due to his “excessive masturbation.”
KOyeR TIL about Anthony Pellicano, a Hollywood fixer recently released after 15yrs in prison for multiple indictments, he walked out to a six-figure trust funded by high level execs and Hollywood stars for his silence while incarcerated.