› added 5 years ago

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TIL Even though a chess grandmaster can perfectly rearrange a midgame chessboard after seeing it for only 3 seconds, they can't do the same when the pieces are placed at random. They rely on a process called "chunking" (pattern recognition) vs common perception that they have photographic memories.

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loNWB TIL In a study, people were required to pour sugar into a jar, then label it as “Poison”. Despite having poured the sugar themselves, people later refused to consume it. They knew their negative feelings were irrational, but they could not get themselves to shake their intuition away.
Lkp79 TIL in 1909, the United States Government confiscated Coca-Cola products because the high caffeine content breached a food safety law. This case went all to the way to the Supreme Court, and the government won, forcing Coca-Cola to pay all court costs and reduce their product's caffeine content.
6DkX TIL in 2014, US law enforcement took $4.5 billion from citizens who were never charged with a crime; more than US burglars stole in the same year
6ExaQ TIL framers of the US Constitution including Ben Franklin and James Madison were inspired by the 117-article constitution of the six-nation Iroquois Confederacy created before European contact. The law was preserved orally and written in wampum symbols that conveyed meaning.
8QvZ TIL Cambodians serve marijuana on pizza to get around drug laws