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TIL In the '80s there was an intense nationwide effort in China to study ESP among children

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1NbO TIL I learned the popular phrase “Pull yourself up by the bootstraps” was originally created to highlight the impossibility of getting out of a bad situation on one’s own, regardless of how hard one works.
a89xb TIL author Harper Lee once said she regretted writing “To Kill a Mockingbird”, stating to writer Marja Mills, “I wish I’d never written the damn thing.” When Mills subsequently asked her again a few years later, Lee still seemed to express doubts. “Sometimes,” Lee replied. “But then it passes.”
M7EdK TIL that the character Morph was included in X-Men: The Animated Series because the showrunners wanted an X-Man to die in the premiere to foreground the cartoon's serious tone. Later Morph was brought back due to their popularity with audiences.
kJxMe TIL that German chocolate cake was invented in Texas
ADe5d TIL that legendary filmmaker Stanley Kubrick thought the 1988 film The Vanishing (or Spoorloos in its original Dutch titling) was the most terrifying film he had seen – even more frightening than his own The Shining. After seeing it, he called the film's director to discuss editing techniques.