› added 9 years ago

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TIL the crew of a US destroyer threw potatoes at a surfaced Japanese submarine that was too close to attack. This distracted the submarine’s crew, allowing the destroyer to steam far enough away to shoot the submarine and sink it.

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KOgGE TIL that the Overjustification effect is a psychological phenomenon in which being rewarded to do something diminishes the motivation to perform the action. For example, playing an instrument for a reward is not as motivating as playing an instrument just for fun.
6EjBW TIL upon turning 30, you were eligible to run for "Archon" in Ancient Greece which was the highest government office. Athenians also employed "ostracism" where they would vote to banish any politician for a period for 10 years.
8a9ZK TIL Australia has the highest skin cancer rate in the worth and two in three Australians will be diagnosed with skin cancer by the time they are 70
O9LR TIL the Python programming language was named after Monty Python, not the animal.
XymR TIL that in 1982 a scientist discovered an ‘impossible’ structure of matter and was universally mocked by the scientific community. In 2011, Dr. Shechtman was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry.