› added 11 months ago

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TIL that Frank Zappa intended his 1982 song “Valley Girl” to be a mocking satire of California’s teen culture, but ironically, the song’s success instead popularized the “valley girl” accent nationwide. So much so, that a film titled “Valley Girl” was released a year later.

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oRr8R TIL: Sigmund Freud's nephew, Edward Bernays, pioneered the field of public relations. Applying his uncle's ideas, Bernays convinced the public that bacon and eggs was the all-American breakfast and, using subliminal images of vaginas and venereal disease, that only disposable cups were sanitary.
rRak4 TIL from the 1920's to the 1950's cigarette companies routinely paid doctors to endorse and prescribe their brand of cigarettes to patients, falsely claiming them as a "healthy" alternative to other brands. This was done to cover up increasing evidence of the harm done by smoking.
wDVo TIL Asperger syndrome is named for Austrian pediatrician Hans Asperger, who described it in 1944. He called his patients “Little Professors.”
X6rX TIL that in the history of the Earth, we’re closer to Tyrannosaurus Rex than T. Rex is to the Stegosaurus.
QJ6G9 TIL that Vincent Connare, the man who designed the font 'Comic Sans', said in 2017 that he has only used it once while sending a complaint letter to Sky Broadband. They offered him a £10 refund.