› added 12 years ago

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TIL cannibalism - especially brain ingestion - can result in Kuru, a disease that causes both uncontrollable laughter and emotional instability/depression.

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78axr TIL that the mascot of the city of Hidalgo, TX is a 10-foot high, 24-foot-long killer bee statue. It was erected in 1992 to commemorate Hidalgo as the first American city to be invaded by an aggressive strain of African bees that resulted in public panic. The bees were initially released in Brazil.
D1Dlp TIL that Lithuanian words are similar to Sanskrit such as (L|S) UGNI|AGNI for fire, DEIVA|DEVA for gods, SAKA|SHAKHA for branch, AKIS|AKSHA for eyes, DANTIS|DANTA for tooth, DIENA|DINA for day, RATAS|RATHA for chariot, JANTIS|JAATI for tribe, VYRA|VEERA for man, MENESIS|MAASA for month!
N7vkM TIL about the Osborne 1, the first commercially successful portable microcomputer. Released in 1981, it weighed nearly 25 pounds, had to be plugged into the wall and cost $1,795 (or roughly $5,000 in today's dollars).
Zp7K4 TIL that Cluster headaches - a disorder with no known cause that affects roughly 0.05% of people per year and causes headaches regarded as the most severe pain known to medicine - received less than $2 million in research funding from the US National Institutes of Health between 1998-2013.
vPvY4 TIL that William I's response to northern rebellion in England was to order the wholesale slaughter of the inhabitants of northern shires, and the burning of food, homes, crops, tools, and livestock so that survivors would freeze or starve