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TIL Sherlock Holmes was inspired by a real person, Doyle based the character of Sherlock Holmes at least in part on Dr. Joseph Bell, a surgeon and professor at Edinburgh’s Royal College of Surgeons.

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via reddit.com

loxV7 TIL John Steinbeck’s dog, Toby, ate his manuscript of Of Mice and Men. There was no other draft. Steinbeck said of the incident, “I was pretty mad but the poor little fellow may have been acting critically. I didn’t want to ruin a good dog for a ms (manuscript), I’m not sure is good at all.”
WkDQA TIL: the Wow! signal, discovered by volunteers, remains the strongest evidence of extraterrestrial communication. The "Big Ear" observatory was since dismantled to make room for a golf course expansion.
mxdnp TIL the Hawthorne Effect is when an individual modifies their behavior because they are being observed. Somewhat like a placebo effect, the novelty of being a research subject and the increased attention could lead to behavior changes that result in false positive & inaccurate experiment conclusions
DQome TIL that anthropologists have identified 7 'universal' moral rules found all around the world: help your family, help your group, return favours, be brave, defer to superiors, divide resources fairly, and respect others’ property.
0d40v TIL that after retiring from baseball Jackie Robinson became vice president of the coffee company Chock full o'Nuts. This made him the first Black vice president of a major American corporation.