› added 6 years ago

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TIL Pikachu's name is mix of the Japanese for sparkle, pikapika, and the sound of squeaking, which is chūchū. So Pikachu's name means "Sparkle-squeak"

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gxL TIL Down Syndrome males are sterile (aside from one documented case)
grKLL TIL Paleolithic peoples suffered less famine and malnutrition than the early farming communities that came after them, because Paleolithic hunter-gatherers accessed a wider variety of natural foods, which allowed them a more nutritious diet and a decreased risk of famine.
kJZjB TIL that in 1989, a group called "The Breeders" caused a medfly infestation in California to protest spraying of the insecticide Malathion, devastating crops and costing $60 million in eradication efforts. The state ceased this spraying in response.
pejN TIL that S.E. Hinton wrote The Outsiders when she was only 15 years old and it has sold 500k copies a year since 1967.
VKXD TIL most of the world’s major waterways have been diverted or dammed or otherwise manipulated—in the United States, only two per cent of rivers run unimpeded.