› added 8 years ago

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TIL that Joseph Weizenbaum, one of the founding fathers of Artificial Intelligence, later became one of it’s leading critics when he found his secretary getting very emotionally involved with ELIZA, a chatbot that he himself programmed.

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7PL7 TIL McDonald’s is no longer the world’s largest restaurant chain - Subway now has more outlets open worldwide than McDonald’s.
mKop TIL that monarch butterflies seem to remember an ancient mountain that used to stand where Lake Superior is now, and they still veer around that long-gone obstacle during their migration flight across the lake.
1ndP TIL New Zealand’s native Māori make up only 15% of the population, but over 50% of the imprisoned population
GPgJ TIL they detected a particle whizzing about at 0.999 999 999 999 999 999 999 9951 times the speed of light - with energy 20 MILLION times more than the highest energy measured in radiation emitted by an extragalactic object! They call this the “Oh-My-God Particle”.
6E94X TIL that in the 1800’s doctors used “hydrotherapy” as a way of sedating patients in mental asylums that continued into the 20th century. One method of the treatment was the sprays, the patient stood in a shower stall, sometimes strapped in, while an attendant hoses them down with hot or cold water.