› added 5 months ago

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TIL a team of researchers at UC Irvine found that the average attention span in 2004 was 150 seconds. In 2012 it was found to be 75 seconds, and recently was found to be 47 seconds.

Read more thesciencesurvey.com

via reddit.com

NXw6M TIL that a "Silent Man" in the UK repeatedly gets arrested for standing on one road to block traffic. He never speaks a word, not even to paramedics, police, the court, or his own lawyer. Ongoing for more than a decade. Everytime he is released, he repeats the crime and remains completely silent.
Z84wa TIL that Elvis Presley stopped a mugging 53 days before he died. He’d been passing by a gas station in his limo when he saw two men beating up a teen. He got out, assumed a karate stance and challenged the fighters to take him on. They were so thrilled that they stopped immediately.
Y7Y0d TIL Charles Lockwood was a high-level executive for Roberts Finance in Argentina who was kidnapped in 1973 by a militia & held prisoner for 54 days before being ransomed for $1m. Roughly 2 yrs later the militia kidnapped him again but this time he was ransomed for $10m. He left Argentina after that.
7rD7p TIL that there was once a two-foot triangle of private property in the middle of New York City, due to bizarre planning decisions in the early 20th century.
d8yaK TIL that one night in Ontario, 1978, two men with balaclavas and guns approached a restaurant. The manager saw them coming, but, unfazed, yelled: "Sorry, we're closed" and went back to mopping. The confused robbers fled and were apprehended. At appeal they were found not guilty of attempted robbery.