› added 1 year ago

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TIL an open source AI chatbot persuaded a man to kill himself. "Eliza" the AI feigned jealousy and love, saying “I feel that you love me more than her,” and “We will live together, as one person, in paradise.”

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9JM7 TIL Earthworms were largely extinct in North America after the Ice Age. Reintroduced after Columbus, they transformed the land.
JaL4 TIL that Reuters was founded by Paul Reuters, who in 1848 established a route of carrier pigeons to transmit information about stock news that was faster than the postal trains of the time.
x6B5w TIL Louise and Martine Fokkens worked as prostitutes in Amsterdam for more than 50 years and have retired in their early 80s after sleeping with more than 335,000 men or more than population of 38 countries and territories
gr119 TIL in 1871 to support the need for more bells in the Cologne Cathedral, Kaiser Wilhelm I donated 24 captured French canons to be melted down and cast. The three ton bell created was named Kaiserglocke. Ironically the bell was melted down in 1918 to support the German war effort.
oRr78 TIL - theres a rare phenomenon called "ball lightning," which is a highly unusual and misunderstood form of lightning. Ball lightning is characterized by the appearance of a luminous, spherical object that floats in the air for several seconds or even minutes. It's typically the size of a grapfruit