› added 10 years ago

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TIL that Valve never expected “the cake is a lie” joke to become as popular as it did. They expected a metal hoop that roles past the player during the ending cutscene named “Hoopy the Hoop” would become the most well known joke in Portal. Hoopy even reappears in Portal 2.

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PYeAJ TIL John DeLorean was arrested by the FBI for conspiring to smuggle $24M worth of cocaine into the US while the DeLorean Motor Co was failing to raise money to survive. Claiming he was coerced into participation in the deal by FBI agents who approached him as legitimate investors, he was acquitted
QN8yL TIL in 1761 after a shipwreck, 60 slaves were abandoned on an island with the promise of being rescued. They were later forgotten. 15 years later they managed to rescue the remaining survivors: 7 women and an 8 month old baby. They managed to keep a fire burning for 15 years.
oWyL TIL there’s a a fake bomb detector produced in the UK that has been sold to 20 countries in the Middle East and Far East, including Iraq and Afghanistan, for as much as $60,000 per unit. The fake bomb detector is still in use by police and army in those countries.
d8Jmj TIL that the average workweek for a manufacturing employee in the 1890s was 100 hours. The five day, 40-hour workweek didn't become standard until 1940 thanks to the passing of the Fair Labor Standards Act, which required employers to pay overtime to anyone working more than 40 hours.
Bggjy TIL: The smell of rotten eggs from natural gas is added to identify it, natural gas is inherently odorless.