› added 7 years ago

300

TIL that the AI that beat the world’s best DOTA player did so only because it was a 1v1, forced the player to use the same hero it was using, had access to Dota’s API, and ended up losing multiple times after players switched strategy

Read more theverge.com

via ift.tt

VMQbD TIL the original "laugh track" used in sitcoms was a physical instrument like an organ, was held under lock and key, and was owned and operated by only one man who knew how it worked. Charley Douglass used his "laff box" to create the laugh track for almost every sitcom in the 50s, 60s, and 70s.
W7MlX TIL that Disney parks generate ~$8.6 billion annually in park admissions alone and dominates the list of the top 20 most expensive theme parks in the world.
4k0m6 TIL Tibetan monks practice chöd, a ritual involving meditation in haunted places and visualizing offering their own bodies to spirits as a feast. They spend nights in graveyards, aiming to dissolve ego, confront mortality, and transcend fear, achieving compassion and detachment by embracing death.
EgKvp TIL a survey found that 46% of men were either very confident (20%) or somewhat confident (26%) that they could land a passenger plane by themselves in an emergency situation, as long as they could talk to air traffic control. Only 20% of women felt the same (7% very confident, 13% somewhat).
nex0B TIL a man endured 440 days drifting across the Pacific Ocean until he was found in the Marshall Islands in 2013, emaciated and wearing only his underpants, having swum ashore.