› added 1 year ago

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TIL Enid Blyton had many affairs, including a lesbian one with the children's nanny. When her husband found out, fearing for her public image she insisted he publicly admit adultery or be denied contact with his children. Afterwards she reneged, denying contact and blacklisted him in publishing.

awel0 TIL that Milton Friedman served as an advisor to Chilean Dictator Augusto Pinochet did not criticize Pinochet's dictatorship at the time, nor the assassinations, illegal imprisonments, torture, or other atrocities that were well known by then.
mG5P TIL a chicken named Mike lived for 18 months with no head. When cutting the head off for dinner, the axe missed his jugular and most of his brain stem, allowing him to retain most of his basic motor and reflex functions
rN6G0 TIL a fungus infects ants' central nervous systems. Once it has been in an insect for 9 days, it acquires full control. It forces the ant to climb trees, then convulse and fall into the moist soil. Once there, the fungus waits until solar noon to force the ant to bite a leaf and wait for death.
l71vV TIL an eggcorn is the alteration of a phrase through the mishearing or reinterpretation of one or more of its elements, creating a new phrase having a different meaning from the original but which still makes sense and is plausible when used in the same context.
NXyLJ TIL the name of Ishi, known as the 'last wild indian' is an adopted name. In the Yahi culture, he one cannot speak his own name until introduced by another Yahi. When asked his name, he said: "I have none, because there were no people to name me"