› added 8 years ago

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TIL texting is considered to be closer to speaking (“finger speaking”) than it is to writing; it has many hallmarks of an evolving language in its own right with a unique grammar and dialect. Rather than hurting people’s writing skills, texting may provide bidialectical benefits to the brain.

kRVE TIL the lyrics of the first original USSR anthem commissioned by Stalin, the lyrics of the second anthem (after De-Stalinization) and the lyrics of the current anthem of Russian Federation were all written by the same man, Sergey Mikhalkov (who was mostly a writer of children books and fables).
KY8KE TIL legendary footballer Lionel Messi's first contract was written on a restaurant napkin during a meeting with FC Barcelona executives. That napkin is now held in a safe in the Credit Andorra bank.
e0LZ6 TIL camel and goat eyes are ovals to better control light input and are horizontal for a 'panoramic view' that blocks light from above and below. Cats and predators are vertical slits for judging distance without moving the head. Cats eyes alone have ~9x more control over light than humans.
xV1v7 TIL that the reason why Plankton is eating holographic meatloaf for dinner because holograms are projections of light, and Plankton gain energy through photosynthesis
e0pXg TIL in the 1960's NASA funded a study attempting to get dolphins to speak English, wherein a woman lived in a partially flooded house with a dolphin, they took LSD together, and she gave the dolphin handjobs. Ultimately, they discovered it was not possible to teach a dolphin to speak English.