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While some of the things we learn don't necessarily make us smarter, they can definitely arouse our desire to learn more. Or at least help us continue our stalling conversations. And Twitter account WTF Facts is dedicated to collecting and sharing these random tidbits of information. From celebrity lifestyle to international relations, the project covers a wide range of topics, which is probably the reason why its feed remains so fresh and interesting. Continue scrolling and check out some of the most popular tweets WTF Facts have ever released!

Knowing obscure facts isn't just fun. It's also good for our mental health. For example, experts say that playing trivia games can provide a dopamine rush much like gambling, but without the negative effects. 

Even if our trivia games differ, the benefits are there. Whether we're playing Trivial Pursuit at home or attending a pub trivia night, the basic premise remains the same: we experience the thrill of providing correct answers to questions about lesser-known facts.

"You get a rush or a neuroreward signal or a dopamine burst from winning,” John Kounios, Ph.D., professor of psychology and director of the doctoral program in applied cognitive and brain sciences at Drexel University in Pennsylvania, told Healthline. “I think whenever you’re challenged with a trivia question and you happen to know it, you get a rush. It’s sort of like gambling.”

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Kounios said the benefits can also be similar to those of playing a video game.

However, unlike gambling and even video games, Kounios said trivia is generally not a problematic habit.

“I don’t think there are any pitfalls,” he said. “Like anything else that’s fun, it takes up time.”

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WilvanderHeijden
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3 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

A girl at a party had accused Adams and his two friends of rape. Despite a witness statement that contradicted the accuser's story, Adams and his friends were arrested and charged with sexual assault. But they were all black and accused by a white girl of rape, so no matter what they said they weren't believed. After a mistrail because the girl kept changing her story, there was a retrail. And although you legally can't be trailed twice for the same offence Adams got wrongfully convicted to 28 years in prison.

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Aragorn II Elessar
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Actually, that didn’t violate the fifth amendment (double jeopardy). The purpose of that is to prevent people who got off from being convicted later for the same crime. The mistrial doesn’t count as a first trial, and a retrial was entered into in order to have closure on the accusations. People are regularly retried in order to prove their innocence, by their permission. You can’t be forced to stand trial multiple times in order to prove your guilt (you cannot be placed in double jeopardy of life, property, etc).

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Nicole Weymann
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yet another point against the death penalty. No one can give him back those years, but at least it's not a posthumous "Oh, oops, sooo sorry. Thoughts & prayers".

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Yort
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I think the death penalty should stand but only be for extreme cases. Like Ed Gein kind of extreme cases.

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third molar
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

So he has to study and help himself. What does it do to our confidence in justice system?

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Alexis
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

There are too many wrongful convictions ): Good for him to find the will and dedication to study in prison and was able to overturn his wrongful conviction. And now moving on to help others who are also wrongfully convicted. The US criminal system needs some dusting and cleaning up.

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Bert van Aalsburg
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Around 2010, state prison rules were changed to ban library material that would allow prisoners to study any subject that would aid in their defense.

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Susan Widomski
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

More power to the people that can make a difference. Our judicial system is flawed.

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Daniel Callaway
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

One of the few Americans who got a college education all by himself and something that can help other Americans.

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Josey Griffin
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And I bet there’s a lot been falsely imprisoned. Good on him.

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Amy Zettek-Cosgrove
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I’m glad he got out, but shouldn’t have been in there in the first place 🤬🤬🤬

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TomiSmith
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Good for him, such an inspiration for others to follow, if only they would.

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Ja R
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

2 tragic things innocent convicted finally exonerated but the criminal still out there although he might have been caught for other crimes

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Steve in Denver
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The very first story i heard on THIS AMERICAN LIFE (weeklky NPR radio broadcast) was about four Black teenagers framed for a White woman's murder. One of them also achived his law degree while in prison and got the cases overtunred… 25 years laster.

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Sav Medrano
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

There's a TV show like this. I think it was based on his or another guys' life and being falsely convicted. But it's called 'For Life' I really do recommend checking it out. okbye

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Alex Hamilton
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I have been falsely convicted myself as a result of bent police and useless lawyers. I did manage to get 3 people out of prison who should not have been there by challenging their convictions and remand. I am proud of this. and it makes being wrongly banged up far more tolerable.

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Sophie Greeff
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

For life tv series is a fictional telling of this with some stories based on his life

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Scarlett O'Hara's Ghost
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If you found this interesting and/or horrific, I implore you to look into The Innocence Project. A tremendous charity that helps people wrongly convicted. This is a travesty in our justice system that happens way too much!

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DanieLegz
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I read one like this before where the wrongly convicted mans sister goes to law school and gets him free

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Yugan Talovich
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The confidence in that look! 'Yeah? What have you got? Throw it at me.'

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Teresa Groth
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Praise Jesus, for the brilliant use of time while He served time!

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A librarian from California, Sarah Kishler, loves trivia games and enjoys attending a monthly pub trivia night in which a team of librarians participates.

"Learning facts so that I can get better at trivia is definitely a passion of mine," she told Healthline. "Getting a question right is definitely very satisfying to me."

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Guido Pisano
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Same in Italy... You're allowed to disobey an order that you think is illegal...

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Over the past decade or so, pub trivia nights that are popular in the United Kingdom appear to have grown in other parts of Europe and the United States.

Enthusiasts like Kishler enjoy getting to interact with people at these events, especially compared to electronic trivia games.

She has learned that doing well at these social trivia games gives her "a feeling of validation" and increases her self-esteem.

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River Webb
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

yeah Disney often adapts its stories to be appropriate for children, eventually leading everybody to only remember the Disney version and not the original

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"I love general knowledge, geography, literature, music, science trivia," Kishler explained. "I just love to accumulate knowledge. I like the exercise that it gives my brain and memory."

She doesn't think of herself as a competitive person but nevertheless enjoys getting a bit amped up at trivia games.

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“People really like to have some expertise on something and the brain is very good at focusing on things that you’re interested in,” Deborah Stokes, Ph.D., L.P.C., B.C.N., a psychologist in Virginia, who focuses on neurotherapy, told Healthline.

According to Stokes, learning large bodies of knowledge can often start with trivia. And people who are interested in trivia can be brainy, have a high IQ, and be smart on a lot of levels.

However, Kounios said that people aren’t necessarily better at trivia games just because they’re more educated.

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Láďa Durchánek
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I can barely draw a stick figure and if instructions have more than one step it is safer to write them down.

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"Some people soak up facts,” Kounios added. "Plenty of people with a lot more education may not remember what they had for breakfast yesterday morning."

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"In typical people, my observation, not backed up by any research, is that their interest in trivia is confined to topics that they are generally interested in. So if a person is very interested in history, then they may either seek out history trivia, or they might just naturally pick it up in the course of learning about nontrivial aspects of history."

Stokes pointed out that trying to retain information about things we're interested in can be like a good exercise for the frontal cortex as the brain ages.

"That’s the first thing to go with injury or with age if we don’t use it," she said.

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Of course, it's completely understandable if the pandemic has drained your brain of the desire to learn and flooded it with boredom and tiredness instead. In an earlier Bored Panda interview, Lenore Skenazy, the president of Let Grow and the founder of the Free-Range-Kids movement, said that before we can become curious again, we have to do the hard part: get off the couch. Force yourself out the door. Why? Because beyond your four walls, things are never exactly the same. Weather, animals, people, sounds, smells, clouds—they’re all swirling about."

Lenore continued: "Ask yourself to start noticing new things. I did that this morning with a friend. We took a walk around our neighborhood and started looking for interesting details in the homes and buildings we passed. It went from a walk down streets we’d seen a million times to a sort of treasure hunt. And the big thing we were really hunting for? Curiosity! When you’re curious you’re alive again—noticing, thinking, making connections. You can’t do that if there’s no new information coming in. So your first step is to force yourself out of a rut by leaving the house (harder during the pandemic, but not impossible)."

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Michelle M
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Here's another fact. Marilyn Monroe and Queen Elizabeth were born in the same year.

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Bill
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Except 21 payouts and Non Disclosure agreements. No innocent person would pay out that many times

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QuokkaVibes
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

As an Italian (but this is my personal belief, everyone is entitled to it's own) this is exactly something Mafia would do. It's something I know occurs in Italy on a daily basis. You see a quite common modus operandi is mobster would do something nice for the community or for specific people, so that the community in the area feels dependable. One well known method of recruiting in the mafia is: you have a problem, we send to you someone you know (and you don't know he works for us). Maybe a friend of a friend. He'll fix your problem for you. After time is passed this person asks for a little innocent thing like let's say "I'm sick can you bring this box to this adress? I can't move". After that he asks for more pressuring you on the favor he did awhile back and tells you that box you delivered was full of drugs/handguns so you're an accomplice. And that's it you're in a system you can't escape without hurting family and friends.

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Mary Rose Kent
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3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I assume that this photo is all of the lazy culprits and, of course, the one who actually did the deed

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Note: this post originally had 122 images. It’s been shortened to the top 50 images based on user votes.

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