› added 1 year ago

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TIL about Sunflower Syndrome - a rare form of pediatric photosensitive epilepsy. The child is attracted to the sun (heliotropism) or a bright light, wave their hand in front of their eyes to create a strobe and trigger seizure activity with lapses in consciousness and often a feeling of relief.

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via reddit.com

d4Kd TIL that the plane Lyrnyd Skynyrd went down in was earlier rejected by Aerosmiths flight crew because they felt neither the plane nor the crew were up to standards.
NgJ6 TIL there’s a place in Mongolia that was declared sacred by Genghis Khan. The only people allowed to enter were the Mongol Royal Family and a tribe of elite warriors, the darkhat, whose job it was to guard it, punishment for entering being death. They carried out their task for 697 yrs, until 1924.
16nLW TIL wooden norias of the Orontes river in Hama, Syria were driven by water flowing underneath them pushing the wheel's paddles. Maintained by skilled carpenters till recently due to lack of money and skilled craftsmen, norias delivered up to 200,000 litres of water per hour to timeshared channels
VOK8 TIL Japanese emperor Akihito is a world class expert on goby fish. He has published 38 peer-reviewed scientific studies on the topic.
X05AX TIL that the Gold Rush stimulated economies around the world. Farmers in Chile, Australia, and Hawaii found a huge new market for their food; British manufactured goods were in high demand; clothing and even prefabricated houses arrived from China.