Between 1997-2007, more than 182,000 farmers had committed suicide in India!

This equals to one farmer committing suicide every 30 minutes, enough to be the largest wave of suicides in history! Interestingly enough, 2/3 of the suicides happened in only 5 out of India’s 28 states.

What is worse is that this data is official and thought to be widely underestimated. The most common reason for the suicides seems to be debt. Farming has become very difficult for the poor “old school” farming done by peasants and being replaced by giant seed companies, which has made it difficult for these families to get ahead. The growing industrialism of farming is making it nearly impossible for the traditional farmer to survive and make a living.

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The deepest picture of the universe ever achieved by mankind was taken over almost 4 months!

The image required 800 exposures amounting to over a million seconds, and was taken over the course of 400 Hubble orbits around Earth. The total amount of exposure time is 11.3 days, and the picture was taken between Sept 24, 2003 and Jan. 16, 2004.

The image is actually two separate images taken by the Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys and the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer.

The images were taken for research purposes and reveal around 10,000 galaxies; many of which were previously too far away to see.

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An escaping prisoner saved a guard from freezing. Because of this, he was burnt to death!

In the Netherlands during the final years of Spanish rule, Dirk Willems was tried and convicted for being an Anabaptist.

One day, Willems escaped from the prison-converted palace he lived in and was running across the frozen moat. Seeing him escape, a guard from the prison ran after Willems, following him across the lake. Willems had lost much weight during his sentence and simply walked across the thin ice, while the prison guard was heavier and fell through the ice.

In a true act of heroism, Willems aided the fallen guard out of the ice, saving him. Unfortunately, the guard was unsympathetic and arrested Willems, sending him to a higher security facility. In his memory, there is a street in Asperen, Holland in Willems’ honor.

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How did Soviet Union pilot T. Kuznetsov fly home after a crash? By stealing another plane!

In 1942, Kuznetsov survived a crash landing after an informational mission to spy on another military base. After crashing, Kuznetsov escaped his plane’s wreckage and hid.

Luckily, a German soldier landed his plane right by where Kuznetsov was hiding, looking for something. When the moment was right, the Soviet pilot stole the German pilot’s plane and flew home!

Ironically, Kuznetsov was nearly shot down and killed by his own country, thinking he was German!

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Horses can't puke!

If a human eats something that does not settle well with our stomachs, the body reacts and throws up. Horses cannot due to the angle of the esophagus as well as the muscle that connects the esophagus and stomach which acts as a one-way valve. 

For example, if you overeat, your stomach becomes upset and you throw up. If a horse overeats, it's more likely that the stomach will rupture from the excess of food!

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