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TIL There is a Harvard library that houses over 2,500 pigments and with the scientific instruments they use, they were able to prove a Jackson Pollock painting was fake based on the year a certain pigment was discovered.

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1beO TIL baseball catcher Dave Bresnahan threw a potato to deceive a baserunner into being tagged by the ball. The league banned him but fan-support forced the club to retire his number. At his retirement ceremony he said “Gehrig played 2130 games & hit 340; all I had to do was bat .140 & throw a potato”
R5rNw TIL: the Judge Rotenberg Center, an institution in Massachusetts for those with developmental disabilities and autism, has been condemned for torture by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture
R8M4 TIL When spinning a penny the chances of landing on tails is 80%, contrary to the popular belief that there is a 50/50 chance either way.
Z8jQv TIL that despite a diet of up to 7,000 calories per day and weighing up to 400 lbs, sumo wrestlers typically do not suffer from symptoms of obesity due to their intense workout regimens. Upon retirement, however, they must seriously cut calories or become at risk for cardiovascular disease.
jNKeX TIL of the "The Norwegian Rocket Incident", when in 1995, Russian officials briefly misinterpreted a Norwegian scientific rocket to be a nuclear attack. It showed the dangers of accidental nuclear war even when the threat of military confrontation between the US and Russia was at an all-time low.