› added 12 years ago

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TIL in 2009 a five-year-old girl who spent her entire life locked in a room with cats and dogs, and no heat, water, or sewage system was found. She could not speak Russian, would jump at the door and bark as caretakers left, and had “clear attributes of an animal”.

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Y7VbP TIL about the Pit of Despair, an apparatus used in widely-condemned experiments that isolated young monkeys in a dark, smooth tank with sloped sides and a curved base. The monkeys were left isolated and hopeless in the dark for months, supposedly to induce and study depression.
wL6rP TIL: In 1814 more than a hundred thousand gallons of beer burst onto the streets of London when a vat broke. This beer Flood Killed Eight People.
0d9gN TIL that the second-highest mountain in the world, K2, has an overall death rate of 13% and only 377 people have successfully climbed it (compared to 11,258 Everest summits).
lD05 TIL that Ferrari fired its President despite the company being poised to announce record financial figures, because the Formula One team had not been winning any races.
wLkaW TIL that there is a literal difference between a Quest and an Adventure. A Quest is when conflict is forced onto the protagonist (e.g. LotR), and an Adventure is when the protagonist intentionally seeks conflict (e.g. Beowulf).