› added 6 years ago

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TIL of Erica Pratt, who was abducted and locked in a basement when she was seven years old. She escaped her kidnappers in less than 24 hours by gnawing through the duct tape binding her hands and feet, kicking out a panel on the basement door, punching out a window, and then screaming for help.

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via reddit.com

R79R1 TIL of Seki Takakazu, a mathematician described as "Japan's Newton", who independently discovered many results attributed to his European contemporaries, some of which were rediscovered only centuries later.
5mLR TIL that the term “goody two shoes” comes from a children’s story about an orphan girl who was so poor she could only afford one shoe
9YRrB TIL: You gag when someone else barfs because we lived in packs and ate the same food, so when someone gets sick and vomits, it was advantageous for all the rest to do the same.
9YO1B TIL cats have contributed to the extinction of at least 63 global vertebrate species, deemed one of “the most ubiquitous and environmentally damaging invasive predators on Earth", while new studies shows cats are ineffective when it comes to catching rats.
K7NR TIL of a cat nicknamed “Unsinkable Sam” who survived 3 separate ship sinkings in both the Kriegsmarine and Royal Navy during WWII