› added 5 years ago

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TIL of Gregory Blackstock, an autistic savant born in Seattle who spent his working life as a pot washer. He has created visual lists - astonishingly meticulous drawings of such diverse subjects as The Great Cabbage Family, Classical Clowns, Shoes, American Lighthouses and Great Italian Roosters.

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ADXb4 TIL there's such thing as a Quaking Bog, where bog vegetation builds up on top of water or very wet peat. Walking there can cause the ground to ripple and trees to sway.
WnM4 TIL of the iQue Player, an version of the Nintendo 64 developed by Nintendo and Chinese-American scientist Wei Yen and released in 2003. The system itself was self-contained in the controller. Games for the system were loaded through a memory card and could only be bought through kiosks and online
Brnrx TIL that honey bees are able to stab through the leaves of certain plants to trigger their flowering process weeks earlier than usual.
6Eoyw TIL Daniel Dennett, an American philosopher, writer, and scientist believed prayer was not only useless but counterproductive. After a major medical emergency, he wrote an article comparing prayers for his health to sacrificing a goat or seeking a voodoo spell, though he appreciated their kindness
Wk9J4 TIL 21 years ago Twenty people died when a United States Marine Corps EA-6B Prowler aircraft, while flying too low, against regulations, in order for the pilots to "have fun" and "take videos of the scenery", cut a cable supporting a gondola of an aerial tramway. The pilots faced no consequences.