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TIL when lead was removed from gasoline, there was a dramatic decrease in the violent crime rate in the Western World.

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via reddit.com

X0Z4j TIL: In order to perform a Ushi no toki Mairi curse, the practitioner wears white and tall clogs, dons an iron crown with 3 candles, suspends a mirror from their chest, then nails an effigy of her target to a tree between 1-3am. In Japanese law it is a textbook example of "impossibility defense".
ANMNl TIL of the Bouba/Kiki Effect. When people are asked to assign the name "Bouba" or "Kiki" to two amorphous shapes —one round & one spiky— they strongly tend to choose Bouba for the round one, and Kiki for the spiky. This has been robustly confirmed across a majority of cultures & languages worldwide.
jNyoN TIL Conan O’Brien was his high school’s valedictorian and graduated magna cum laude from Harvard. He majored in American History and was the president of the Harvard Lampoon.
Z87bB TIL In 2001 Charles Ingram won the grand prize (£1,000,000) on “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” by having a friend in the audience cough on the right answer. He was suspected of cheating, and after review of the recordings the accusation was confirmed. He was charged for deception.
bP0E TIL that before becoming a best-selling true crime author, Ann Rule worked side-by-side and alone with psychopathic serial killer Ted Bundy during the night shift at a suicide prevention hotline. While still working together, she began writing about the unsolved murders in the area.