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TIL that the terms “left” and “right” in politics stem from the seating arrangements during the French Nat’l Assembly. Delegates were split on how much power King Louis XVI should have—enraged, anti-royalist revolutionaries sat to the left of the presiding officer.

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yVLpp TIL about the Bannister Effect: When a barrier previously thought to be unachievable is broken, a mental shift happens enabling many others to break past it (named after the man who broke the 4 minute mile)
Opaa TIL a study suggested playing Portal 2 is better for your brain than brain-training games like Lumosity
pYBn8 TIL That actress Whoopi Goldberg took her stage name from a whoopi cushion, because she used to fart on stage a lot
WjyN TIL that virtually all Middle Ages scholars believed that the Earth is spherical. The myth that people in the Middle Ages thought the earth is flat appears to date from the 17th century as part of the campaign by Protestants against Catholic teaching.
wLWnP TIL Jack Nicholson was charged with assault and vandalism after bashing in a car roof/windshield during a road rage incident. Charges were dropped after he wrote a check for 500K. Two years later he was sued for breaking a woman's breast implant, and another for assault on a woman he bribed for sex.