› added 5 years ago

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TIL When the exiled King Leopold III of Belgium passed close to the North Sentinel island, he was vehemently warned off with arrows by the Sentinelese

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nZRW TIL that in 2009 armed robbers used a helicopter to abseil onto the roof of a cash depot in Sweden. The cash was dropped into a local lake where it was picked up boat. To deter police the robbers used caltrops on local roads and fake IED’s on the police helicopters to keep them grounded.
16Wxd TIL that both successful and unsuccessful attempts at humor increase perceived confidence, but only successful attempts also increase perceived competence and social status
pYP4A TIL in 2005, Michael Jackson planned to build a 50ft robot of himself that would "wander in the [Nevada] desert as an advertisement" for a proposed Las Vegas residency. Funding problems shelved both the robot and residency, and a Nov 2009 meeting to revisit the idea was cancelled once Jackson died
VMPap TIL in 1816, 147 shipwrecked Frenchman were stuck adrift on a makeshift raft when their captain cut the rope towing them. It took only 3 days for them to resort to cannibalism & only 15 survived to be rescued after 13 days. The aristocrat captain hadn't sailed in 20 yrs & it was 100% avoidable.
j6PXQ TIL the myth of a Deaf Frenchman and a hearing American teaching each other their languages on an ocean voyage in 1816, prior to establishing the first school for the Deaf in the US is not only true, but meticulously-documented. (And The Lincoln statue hands really do show his initials in ASL.)