› added 12 years ago

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TIL Most tropical fruits, avocado, papaya, durian, were eaten by animals that no longer exist and should, evolutionarily, also be extinct

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PYKGe 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.
69All TIL, Aleksandr Komin kept 6 people as prisoners in a 30-feet deep bunker under his garage forcing them to work 16 hours a day. When two women tried to escape, they were caught and Aleksandr tattooed "РАБ"(Russian for "slave") on their faces.
R7R64 The first modern crematory was built in the U.S. in 1876. A second came eight years later. By 1900, there were 20. The practice got another boost in 1963 when the Catholic Church reversed its opinion on cremation during the Vatican II reforms and said cremation was permitted (though ash scattering was not). Four decades ago, less than 5 percent of American were cremated when they died. Now that figure stands at nearly half.
R7bl6 TIL flu season is in the winter because the virus is more stable when the air is colder and drier. It was proven in an experiment exposing guinea pigs the flu in various temperatures and humidity.
wLDbW TIL There's a decades-long experimental archeology project in France to build a 13th century castle with period tools.