› added 6 years ago

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TIL that after being shot in the frontal lobe during WWI, a Hungarian man named Paul Kern became unable to fall asleep. Baffling doctors, he did not present any other symptom other than his inability to sleep and an occasional headache. He went on to live a full, sleepless life.

9wDop TIL about ELIZA, a 1960s chatbot created by MIT professor Joseph Weizenbaum that simulated a psychotherapist. It was so convincing that some users, including Weizenbaum's secretary, became emotionally attached to it. In 2023, ELIZA even outperformed GPT-3.5 in a Turing test study.
rRwK0 TIL that when recording "Heroes", David Bowie used three microphones. One 9 inches away, one 20 feet away, and one just beyond that. Each microphone was muted as the next activated, forcing him to sing at increasing volume to be heard.
QvyL TIL China had plans for the 2008 Olympics to utilize 30 airplanes, 4,000 rocket launchers, and 7,000 anti-aircraft guns with various chemicals in an attempt to stop rain.
BgeYK TIL that aside from aside from receiving help writing the songs "Soft and Wet" and "My Love is Forever" from Chris Moon and an uncredited string arrangement on "Baby" from Charles Veal, Prince was responsible for the writing and recording of everything on his debut album "For You"
e0xp4 TIL Sebastião Ribeiro Salgado and his wife Lélia Deluiz Wanick Salgado in 20 years planted 2.7 million trees to afforest part of The Atlantic Forest & resulted in 1,500 acres of rainforest being recovered with 293 of plants, 15 reptiles, 172 bird, 15 amphibian & 33 mammal species have returned.