› added 4 years ago

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TIL about "lonely negatives," such as disgust, disheveled, inept and inert. These are words that, due to a prefix or suffix, appear as though they should have a positive root but none exists or it has vanished from usage.

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Jwbj TIL that it is possible to create a plant that grows tomatoes above ground and potatoes below by grafting a tomato plant stem onto a potato plant stalk (made possible by both being in the same family of plants known as “nightshades”).
G4Xg TIL a man taking his first ever selfie, with a Darth Vader cut-out, had his picture taken and posted online by a mother who believed he was taking pictures of her kids. He said he thought the selfie would be a good dad joke to send to his three children, who love the Star Wars movies.
Oonbg TIL the Netherlands and the british Isles of Scilly were technically at war with each other for 335 years with neither side realizing it. When peace was signed in 1986, the Dutch ambassador joked that it must have been harrowing to the Scillonians "to know we could have attacked at any moment."
MGlV TIL a family-friendly game developer went into a depression after people repeteadely criticized his game character for looking like ‘a scary animatronic’. He overcame depression, was inspired to make a horror game, and went on to create 'Five Nights at Freddy’s’.
WkaBB TIL of Anton's syndrome, a disorder where people believe they can see when in fact, they are cortically blind. They can't be convinced otherwise though and will be very offended if you point their blindness out and start confabulating/making things up when asked what exactly they are seeing.