› added 9 years ago

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TIL the original Ghostbusters trailer featured a 1-800 number, not a 555 number, which led to a prerecording of Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd. They got 1,000 calls per hour, 24 hours a day, for six weeks.

ne8jd TIL teff, the staple food crop of Ethiopia, is a highly nutritious "superfood" like quinoa. After US and European health food trends created a huge demand for quinoa, prices skyrocketed in Bolivia, where it is a staple food. Fearing their own food shortage, Ethiopia banned the export of teff in 2006
QJdyE TIL about Eric Lundgren who went to prison for a year because he was said to have violated copyrights and counterfeiting Microsoft Windows Restore CD's which he distributed with refurbished PC's. Corporations such as MS, Dell and HP give these discs away for free.
ajZo TIL that the guitar riff for ’(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’ popped into Keith Richards’ head as he was going to sleep in a hotel one night. He quickly recorded it and went to sleep. When he woke up, he heard the soon to be iconic riff and “then me snoring for the next 40 minutes.”
E1jNV TIL that, before becoming a reknowned chef, Julia Child was a member of the OSS, which was the precursor to today's CIA. She had top secret clearance and led the development of a shark repellent. She wanted to be a field agent, but was precluded from doing so because she was 6' 2" tall.
VMrv0 TIL about Pontiac’s War, the most successful First Nation resistance against European invasion in North America. It resulted in British Reforms to maintain a strong and expensive army presence and consequently tax the colonies to fund the army, which led the way for the American Revolution.