› added 10 years ago

113

TIL Griffith created the WikiScanner in August 2007, which cross-references IP addresses, company IP address ownership, and content edits. WikiScanner located violators of Wikipedia rules, such as the Vatican, Wal-Mart, FBI, CIA, Church of Scientology, Exxon, Microsoft, Apple, and the UN.

Read more computer.howstuffworks.com

via reddit.com

v1WV8 TIL about the European Green Belt, an area stretching from Finland to Albania that has a unique ecological wildlife due limited human involvement as it also was the iron curtain border for 50 years.
5JjB TIL in 1989 a Michigan farmer found a camera attached to balloons in his field. It contained images of what appeared to be a mutilated corpse, sparking a yearlong FBI investigation. It turned out to be footage for Nine Inch Nails’ first music video, filmed 200 miles away.
OolKe TIL: That in the late 1800s they used to put fake horse heads on the front of automobiles as to not spook the actual horses in traffic.
oBPn8 TIL that in 2008 an app called "I Am Rich" was released for a day. It had absolutely no purpose, cost $999.99, and eight people bought it just to show that they could afford it.
gJNy TIL that in 1995, only 7% of China’s urban residents had a refrigerator. By 2007, this number had jumped to 95%.