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TIL that for 14 years nobody on Sesame Street would believe Big Bird when he would try to tell them about Mr. Snuffleupagus. After an increase in child abuse cases, producers decided to make him "real" so children could see that adults will believe them when they have something important to say.

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gLab TIL in 1995, the company Namco patented “auxiliary games” that play while the main game loads, thus forbid other game titles to have those. The patent expired earlier this year.
Z1OG TIL The Songhai Empire collapsed following a battle when their army released 1000 cattle to charge the invading Moroccans but the cattle turned around and stampeded the Songhai because the Moroccans fired their guns and cannons.
KYV6B Today I learned that sound can be minus decibels. The quietest place on Earth is Microsoft’s anechoic chamber in Redmond, WA, USA, at -20.6 decibels. These anechoic chambers are built out of heavy concrete and brick and are mounted on springs to stop vibrations from getting in through the floor.
D1XKj TIL that the Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, Arabic, Devanagari, Thai, Armenian, Mongolian, Hebrew, and Tibetan writing systems (among others) are all descended from Egyptian hieroglyphs.
xVvdk TIL a study showed that 62% of Japanese people said they would eat an onigiri (rice ball) made by someone they know, only 30% said they would eat the onigiri crafted by an unfamiliar or unknown hand. This is attributed to the legacy of 16th century ninja poison rice ball assassinations.