› added 10 years ago

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TIL that baby incubators were originally shunned by the medical profession, and gained popularity after Dr. Martin Couney had premature infants in incubators on exhibit at Coney Island.

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ZaNp TIL Frankenstein was written due to a volcanic eruption. Because of all the ash in the sky, Mary Shelley and her friends would stay indoors and have contests of who could write the scariest stories. Frankenstein was the scariest.
9BRp TIL that in 1912 the Australian national rugby team played 16 games in the US and Canada. It played poorly because players stayed in college frat houses and partied too much; one member said “We were never in bed. That was the trouble. I’ve never had such a time in my life”.
x64Qk TIL Stanford University rejected 69% of the applicants with a perfect SAT score between 2008-2013.
JYKdB TIL that ants are amongst the few animals who passed the mirror test, which is a strong evidence of self-recognition, and indicates the possibility of self-awareness (i.e. a “sense of self”).
moOR TIL that 74% of Netflix subscribers would rather cancel their subscription than see ads.