› added 7 years ago

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TIL of the Hypoalgesic effect of swearing which has has shown that the use of profanity reduces the sensation of pain. Swearing in response to pain activates the amygdala which in turn triggers a fight-or-flight response. This then leads to a surge in adrenalin, a natural form of pain relief.

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EGw TIL the world’s largest primates stood 10 feet tall and may have coexisted with humans before going extinct
JYPm1 TIL that the pain of loss is more powerful psychologically than the joy of gain, according to the concept of "loss aversion" identified by Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman. People tend to prefer avoiding losses to acquiring equivalent gains, for example, it is better to not lose $5 than to find $5.
VJa8 TIL there are no narwhals kept in captivity. All attempts to do so have been unsuccessful
4PEN TIL that the Higgs boson, commonly refered to as the “God Particle”, was originally intended to be name the “goddamn particle”, but Leon Lederman’s publisher asked that it be changed. Higgs, an atheist, was unhappy with the nickname because he thought the term “might offend people who are religious”
wojpM TIL that plants use arithmetic division to calculate the rate at which to use up starch at night