› added 3 years ago

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TIL No authentic writings of Pythagoras have survived. Almost nothing is known for certain about his life. The earliest source describes Pythagoras helping a dog that had been beaten. Pythagoras thought he could recognise his friend's voice in the dog's cries.

M7y80 TIL of caudal regression syndrome, a rare birth defect that causes regression of development of the lower spine and limbs.
oBd8E TIL Of the pareto principle also known as the 80/20 rule. Which states that for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. ex. Microsoft has noted that by fixing the top 20% of the most-reported bugs, 80% of the related errors in a given system would be eliminated.
N7QvE TIL in Japan ~%99 of people are cremated. After cremation, the family uses chopsticks to transfer the bones out of the ash and into an urn. This is the ONLY time is acceptable to pass anything from chopsticks to chopsticks. Doing such outside of a funeral can remind bystanders of a recent funeral.
ep6Ak TIL that after acting as his own attorney and being found guilty, a North Carolina man appealed his conviction on the basis that he did not receive "effective assistance of counsel" (i.e. himself). His appeal was denied.
v1gG8 TIL that when an animatronic langur infant was used to film wild langurs, the monkeys adopted it--until it was eventually dropped and ceased movement, at which point the monkeys believed it had died and gathered together to mourn the dead infant