› added 12 years ago

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TIL that a baby red octopus snuck into a tank at Monterey Bay Aquarium while it was the size of a fingernail. It stayed alive by eating local residents, and wasn’t discovered until it had grown to the size of a fist.

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gD7X TIL that because babies listen to the languages spoken around them while still in the womb, they develop distinctive cries that reflect this when they’re born. Thus - babies cry with an accent, making it possible to distinguish a French baby from a German baby, based purely on the way they cry.
m1MAE TIL Jim Thorpe was the first Native American to win Olympic gold for the U.S., dominating both the pentathlon and decathlon in 1912. He then went pro in baseball, football, and basketball, and even became the first president of the NFL.
vPwXL TIL legendary session bassist Leland Sklar put a switch on his bass that does nothing. He calls it the "producer switch" — when a producer asks for a different sound, he flips the switch (making sure the producer can see), and carries on. He says this placebo has saved him a lot of grief.
Q1Dk TIL a master impersonator and identity thief with no medical training, imperonsated a surgeon on board a ship, read some text books and performed life saving surgery on wounded soldiers.
grAkW TIL: the Texas Western Miners team of 1966 was the first team to win the NCAA national championship basketball game with an all African-American starting lineup. They suffered abuse throughout their tournament run and afterwards.