› added 6 years ago

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TIL that one of the victims who lost his house in the 1991 Oakland Firestorm was game designer Will Wright. He used the experience of rebuilding his life as basis for the concept of The Sims, and added the city's recovery from the fire as a scenario in the game SimCity 2000.

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PY7Rw TIL that some bodies form a waxy substance on the skin called adipocere in the first few days after death.
xVwKb TIL The Pied Piper Fairy Tale may have been inspired by an actual historical event. Inscription: “on the 26th of June ... 130 children – born in Hamelin – were led out of the town by a piper wearing multicoloured clothes. After passing the Calvary near the Koppenberg they disappeared forever."
XEdOE TIL: Despite the importance of chili peppers to many Asian cuisines, they are actually native to the Americas and were only later introduced to Asia through trade.
4NRR TIL that the Decatur Correctional Center in Decatur, IL, allows incarcerated women to keep their babies with them in prison for up to two years. The mothers have a 0% recidivism rate compared to the statewide average of 51.3%.
QJWKp TIL 30 square kilometres of marijuana were found growing in New South Wales, Australia 25 years after it was made illegal. It took 9 years to remove it fully, during which people regularly harvested it and distributed it in Sydney.