› added 12 years ago

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TIL that Japanese Macaque monkeys in 1953 started washing their food before consuming it. They now evolved to seasoning it!

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WX9 TIL that actress Sarah Polley, the little girl from The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, refused the demands of Disney executives to remove a peace sign worn in protest of the first Gulf War, thus severing her ties with the company.
8nO8 TIL Japanese monks mummified themselves while still alive. The practice required the mummifying monk to eat only nuts, buds, and roots for at least three years. When death was near his disciples would put him into a box at the bottom of pit, pack charcoal around the box and bury their master alive.
WkWGB TIL aid expert David Rieff argues that Live Aid donations helped fund a brutal resettlement programme that may have killed up to 100,000. Ethiopia remains one of Africa's poorest countries, and the whole of sub-Saharan Africa is worse off today than it was after Live Aid.
xVb55 TIL of Jack Barsky, a former KGB spy who was sent to work undercover in the USA. He quit his profession by lying to his handlers that he had AIDS. They cut him off as they were afraid of STDs spreading in the Soviet Union. Barsky never returned to Russia.
epkYk TIL during the development of Star Trek, it was initially planned for Spock to be from Mars. However, due to concerns that a Martian landing might occur before the end of the series, his home planet was changed.