› added 6 years ago

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TIL Wilson the Cast Away Volleyball was inspired by screenwriter William Broyles, Jr.'s personal research. Broyles stranded himself on a deserted island for a week, and a volleyball washed ashore.

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6EyOl TIL about St. Chad, who was instrumental in bringing Christianity to England in the 7th century AD. As he lived during a politically troubled time and 'chads' refers to holes from punched ballot papers, he was called the patron saint of botched elections in the 2002 US presidential elections.
W7a0N TIL that William Golding’s "Lord of the Flies" (1954) was almost never published. First submitted as "Strangers from Within," it was rejected nine times and called “rubbish and dull,” until a young Faber & Faber editor persuaded the publishers to print it.
o74R TIL In 1993, Dateline NBC ran a story on the danger of Gm pickups with sidesaddle gas tanks exploding upon impact. NBC was forced to apologize after it was revealed that they had staged the explosions in their crash test footage.
NXrxJ TIL the film 'Titanic 2' exists, but it is not a true sequel to James Cameron's 'Titanic'. The film is about a replica ship, 100 years after the original, sailing the reverse route. Forces of nature cause history to repeat itself.
XE6VQ TIL that a synthetic version of horseshoe crab blood has existed for 15 years and that the practice of bleeding horseshoe crabs alive by the pharmaceutical industry is outdated and unnecessary. Some companies are beginning to commit to the humane synthetic alternative.