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TIL if Mary Ellen Wilson - a little girl declared to be an animal to remove her from an abusive home because while animal cruelty laws had been passed, child abuse laws had not…

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l77ZA TIL that humans can learn echolocation
Zpb6D TIL the iconic line “I’ll have what she’s having” line from When Harry Met Sally was suggested by Billy Crystal on set and director Rob Reiner’s mother Estelle was brought it to deliver the line.
xQ50 TIL that enough Purple Hearts were manufactured during WWII in anticipation of massive casualties encountered during the proposed invasion of Japan, that there still is a surplus of over 100,000 today
X0p46 TIL of operation Abscam: an FBI sting operation in the late 70s which resulted in the resignation of 1 US senator and 5 US congressmen and the expulsion of a 6th congressman for corruption. Congress made it impossible for the FBI to run similar sting ops in the future (Civiletti Guidelines, 1981)
0wpXy TIL Chinese internet users bypass internet censorship of offensive words by using homonyms based on memetic mythical creatures. Eg. 'Fa Ke You/ 法克鱿' meaning 'Fuck you', its direct transliteration into English. Literally, it is "French-Croatian Squid".