› added 4 years ago

213

TIL famed Grateful Dead sound engineer Better Cantor Jackson lost over 1000 original board tapes when her storage locker was liquidated in a sale. Some of the tapes inside crates were purchased by a teacher who tried to sell them for $1 million despite being offered $100,000 by the band.

Read more newyorker.com

via reddit.com

9wLRm TIL in 2012, a computer history museum in California sent a team to Sparkler Filters, a company in Texas, to try to coax them into selling their IBM 402 with Model 129 key punch that was being used for accounting work and inventory. In 2013, the company was still using the machine.
nnm7 TIL that in the US it takes up to 5 business days to transfer money due to an outdated COBOL programming language but in the UK, transfers take merely seconds.
neA4d TIL locusts can exist in two states. Solitary and gregarious. In low populations, locusts behave as individuals. But in high populations they undergo polyphenism where they experience physiological and behavioral changes. Even their color can change when they form a swarm
nebp7 TIL when Archduke Franz Ferdinand was shot in 1914, initial attempts to tend his wounds were impeded by the uniform he had been sewn into for a perfect fit (and to improve his appearance). By the time aides found scissors and managed to cut through his clothes, the Archduke died and thus began WWI.
LenV TIL that the Canada-Denmark Territorial Conflict over Hans Island escalates to Danish military going there and leaving a bottle of schnapps and a sign proclaiming “Welcome to the Danish Island” and then Canadian military forces leaving a bottle of Canadian Club and a sign saying, ‘Welcome to Canada"