› added 3 months ago

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TIL after a local article highlighted the lavish lifestyle of Alan Ralsky in 2003 (known as the "spam king" for sending millions of bulk email solicitations), critics found his physical address & signed him up for so much junk mail that, at the peak, hundreds of pounds of it were delivered each day.

Read more history.howstuffworks.com

via reddit.com

v1lV4 Today I learned that in 1953 Ferrari supplied F1 engines to a hydroplane boat that set a record that still stands today.
nwr7 TIL the biggest explosion before the atom bomb, was caused on accident, killed 2k, injured 9k, launched an anchor of a ship flying over 2 miles, exposed the harbour floor, and reached heat over 9000 degrees
LQX19 TIL the Olympics once included a competition for art works inspired by sports in categories including architecture, literature, music, painting, and sculpture.
WkpKY TIL the word quarantine comes from an Italian variant 'quaranta giorni', meaning forty days, the period that all ships were required to be isolated before passengers and crew could go ashore during the Black Death plague epidemic.
WWy4 TIL that the word lunatic comes from people thinking that the moon could cause madness.