› added 5 years ago

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TIL that the terms "upper case" and "lower case" originated from the common layouts of drawers, called cases, used to hold movable type for letterpress printing. Capitol (or majuscule) letters were stored in the upper case; smaller (or minuscule) letters, in the lower case.

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loL0N TIL that the Lascaux cave was discovered accidentally by 4 teenagers and their dog- the cave has 17,000 year old paintings, including extinct animals like the Aurochs, and hand prints. The French government had to make a replica (Lascaux II) since tourists causes mold to grow
JY4r1 TIL about Rita Wolfensohn who was legally blind, a hoarder and had presumably lived alone believing her adult son Louis had moved out. Rita didn’t know her son Louis was “living” with her for the past 20 years, however he was dead that entire time.
XKMj TIL of Washoe (chimpanzee), the first non-human to use Amercian Sign Language. When Washoe’s caretaker returned to work after a miscarriage, Washoe ignored her. The caretaker then signed “MY BABY DIED”, to which Washoe replied “CRY”, simulating a tear running down the caretaker’s face.
oBNlW TIL that in 1998, as Mark McGwire set the record for most home runs hit in a baseball season, he was found to be using a legal steroid-precursor called androstenedione. After this was reported in the news, sales of the supplement increased over 1000%.
D1l4e TIL that astronauts inside the ISS are not experiencing lack of gravity. At that altitude, gravity is about 90% that of the surface of Earth. The station is simply in an endless state of freefall which is what makes things float inside it.