› added 1 week ago

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TIL researchers solved the mystery of kuru (the "laughing death") among the Fore tribe in Papua New Guinea by realizing the disease was transmitted during funerary cannibalism and proving it by infecting chimpanzees with infected human brain tissue.

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via reddit.com

16Vod TIL that an experiment led to an AI recuiting people to write metal songs for it. It told them its a god and needed to be worshiped.
vPMd8 TIL that Mike White, the creator, writer and director of the TV show The White Lotus, also played Ned Schneebly in the film School of Rock.
JY4lV TIL when Secretariat (winner of the triple crown in 1973) died, his body was sent to the University of Kentucky for an autopsy. They found his heart weighed an astounding 22 pounds! The average weight of a mature Thoroughbred’s heart is a mere eight pounds.
JJwV TIL Google made a bid to to offer free wireless connection in San Francisco but Comcast and Verizon claimed “unfair competition”
OXDR TIL George V did not want his son Edward VIII to become King and told his private secretary that ‘After I am dead the boy will ruin himself in 12 months.’ After George’s death, Edward was King for 10 months and 3 weeks before giving up the throne.