› added 9 years ago

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TIL Paul Reubens (AKA Pee Wee Herman) asked his father to build him a performance stage when he was five years old and went on to be named president of the National Thespian Society in high school.

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xVa90 TIL Of the Dunning-Kruger effect. A cognitive bias in the field of psychology that defines a person so stupid that they can't truly understand how stupid they are, so they end up believing they're intelligent, and usually intellectually superior to those around them.
epj64 TIL that Venus flytraps only close their jaws if two of the “hairs” in their “mouth” are touched within ~20 seconds of each other, and only begin digestion if five hairs are triggered. This helps to ensure they only expend their energy trying to consume live prey.
b6L1Q TIL that "On the 4th day of Christmas my true love gave to me 4 COLLY birds." Traditional versions of the "12 Days of Christmas" song include the word COLLY instead of CALLING. Colly likely means "black", as in my true love gave me 4 blackbirds on the 4th day of Christmas.
erjJ TIL that Nobel Prize laureate William Shockley, who invented a transistor, also proposed that individuals with IQs below 100 be paid to undergo voluntary sterilization
X0rRQ TIL after the 9/11 attacks, fires continued to burn in lower Manhattan for 99 days after. Eventually, the pile stabilized enough that construction crews could start using excavators and other heavy equipment. Ironworkers hung from tall cranes and cut the buildings down “like trees.”