› added 3 years ago

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TIL the self-absorption paradox asserts that the more self-aware we are, the less likely we are to make social mistakes, but the more likely we are to torture ourselves over past mistakes. High self-awareness leads to more psychological distress.

69YLW TIL that the French had for the best part of 5 centuries a very lucrative salt tax. So much so that at some point it was as valuable to France, as the American silver mines were to Spain (according to Cardinal Richelieu)
8bpX TIL that most Italian extra virgin olive oil sold in stores is a fraud. Nearly 70% of cheaper olive oil is not from actual olives, but is cut with cheaper seed oil to lower the price, and much of the product doesn’t even come from Italy.
Y7M6Z TIL that in 2012, KFC were ordered to pay 8.3 million dollars in damages to the family of an Australian girl left severely brain damaged after contracting salmonella poisoning by eating a Twister chicken wrap.
lw0a TIL Brian May’s dad helped him build his famous guitar, but was upset when Brian abandoned his PhD program to join Queen. Brian went on to write “We Will Rock You”, “Fat Bottomed Girls"—and eventually "A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud”, the thesis he finished 36 years later.
v1LPD TIL that after selling KFC, Colonel Sanders started a new restaurant in his wife's name using the same recipe's, was sued by KFC's parent company, and actually settled out of court decisively in the Colonel's favor.