› added 5 years ago

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TIL about Lakshmi Tatma, an Indian girl born with four arms and four legs. Named after a Hindu goddess often depicted as four-armed, the girl became worshipped, and a circus offered to buy her. After a 27-hour surgery done by thirty surgeons, done for free, Lakshmi's extra limbs were removed.

epDeL TIL of a calculator, by The Columbia Journalism Review, which works out your own newsworthiness if you were to go missing. It ranks from 0 (no shit given) to 128 (non-stop news coverage).
4XdBb TIL that Boeing in the 1970s fired 60,000 employees following the failure of their Concorde knock-off and a downturn in general aviation. So many people left the city there was a billboard that read "Will the last person leaving Seattle turn out the lights"
P19EL TIL about the forced expulsion of the Chagossians, when the UK, at the request of the US, began expelling the native inhabitants of the Chagos Archipelago in 1968. The entire population of the Chagos was removed to Mauritius and the Seychelles by 1973
eppYJ TIL of Biofouling, the accumulation of microorganisms, plants, algae, or small animals on surfaces such as ship and submarine hulls. Due to the increased drag this causes a ship, it can cost a vessel up to 40% more in fuel costs. The US Navy alone around $1 billion a year because of biofouling,
OYoa TIL the pokémon Mew was actually a prank, amongst the staff, programmed in by Shigeki Morimoto. Due to a glitch, players were able to encounter Mew.