› added 6 years ago

157

TIL: Of a kid who spent 9 YEARS building an incredibly detailed model of a Boeing jet from paper.

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nWBbY TIL that one in five shoppers have accidentally stolen items via self-checkout.
QmZ9 TIL that in 1971, phone phreaker John Draper discovered a way to gain free minutes for long-distance, AT&T calls. He would blow a toy, ‘Captain Crunch’ whistle, which had the same 2600-hertz tone that indicated a trunk line was ready to be put through, and gain access to additional minutes.
N7ge TIL: George Lucas was sure Star Wars was going to flop, so he made a friendly bet with Stephen Spielberg: That if Close Encounters of the Third Kind made more money than SW, he would get 2.5% of the profit for all time, and vice versa. Spielberg still gets enormous, grudging checks today.
e09k6 TIL "Type A Personality" was invented by researchers who were paid by the tobacco industry to hide the link between smoking and health risks.
5LRn TIL that Saladin, the fabled hero of the Islamic world who repelled the attacks of European invaders during the Crusades and left a monumental mark on the history of the Middle East was, in fact, a Kurd.