› added 3 years ago

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TIL of a 2011 study that analyzed the decisions made by a panel of judges who spent several days reviewing parole applications. It turned out that the likelihood of a prisoner getting parole was mostly determined by how hungry the judges were at different times in the day.

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4PMb TIL that in Paraguay, 2004, almost 400 people died and nearly 500 got injured in a supermarket fire, because the owners locked all the doors to prevent people from fleeing without paying for merchandise.
DjeP TIL there was a competition between professional investors, teenagers, and Orlando the Cat to see who could earn the most money in the stock market during 2012. Orlando, with an increase of 10.8%, beat the investors (3.5%) and the teenagers (-3.2%) by throwing his toy mouse to select his stocks.
lowkA TIL about the Marvel character Doop, an alien bean who among other things; has fought Thor to a standstill, was ready to murder Wolverine with a broken glass bottle, murdered someone with an axe and had sex with a married woman as well as the private investigator that was hired by the husband.
ZpKND TIL 85,200 Swiss women lost from 1848-1952 their citizenship when marrying foreigners due to the "marriage rule". If they married Jews denationalized by Nazi Germany, they became stateless and some died in gas chambers. A 1952 revision allowed retention or reinstatement of citizenship.
GAR9N TIL That early model M-16s were so prone to jams and malfunctions, mostly due to the failure to ship them with cleaning kits and ammunition which fouled the operating mechanism, that the US military produced a comic book detailing proper field stripping instructions for the weapon.