› added 10 months ago

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TIL that 'Cognitive Dissonance' is the mental discomfort experienced when holding 2 conflicting beliefs or values simultaneously. People tend to change one of the conflicting beliefs or acquire new information to reduce the discomfort. Introduced by psychologist Leon Festinger in the 50s.

PY8Xw TIL of John Carpenter, the first person to win on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire". He didn't use any Lifelines until the final question when he called his dad only to say that he didn't actually need any help, and just wanted to tell him that he was about to win a million dollars.
e0n96 TIL about the Fog Bowl, an NFL game in 1988 between the Philadelphia Eagles and Chicago Bears had a fog rollover so dense that the fans couldn’t see the players and the refs had to call what happened after every play because the players couldn’t even see the sidelines
ne8MB TIL about Mary Mallon, an asymptomatic carrier of typhoid, who spread it in New York city in the 1900s. Dr. George Soper discovered every establishment she worked in as a cook had an outbreak of typhoid and warned her to wash her hands but she ignored him and continued to spread it all over the city
KB0G TIL the reason the epidemic was called the “Spanish flu” is because neutral Spain had no wartime censorship during WWI. The press was free to report on outbreaks in Seville and Madrid, and on the illness of King Alfonso VIII. The first outbreak may have actually been in Kansas.
goK7 TIL in 1971, a woman petitioned a Judge for permission to sterilize her “somewhat retarded” daughter. Without a hearing, evidence, or representation for the daughter, the judge granted permission. The daughter later tried to sue the judge, but the Supreme Court voted 5-3 to grant the judge immunity.