› added 11 months ago

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TIL: There was a scam in 2002 where people were invited to a year long reality TV show to win £100000. The participants were told to quit their jobs, leave their homes, and make 1 million within a year. Most realize they were making their own prize money quickly and left. However, some continued.

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mrNM TIL that in 1955, a Sears ad accidentally printed a wrong number for their “Santa hotline”. The number rang up a secret military phone at NORAD, meant to be used in case of a Russian attack. Children called the hotline asking for Santa Claus, and the NORAD Santa Tracker was born.
Jw4k TIL that the most expensive Pokemon card is a “Pikachu Illustrator”, only 6 of these cards were produced and each was given to a group of Japanese children who won a drawing competition in 1997. They sell for around $20, 000.
69PE7 TIL that Svante Pääbo, the 2022 Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine, is the son of Sune Bergström, who is also a Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine (1982).
ned5o TIL that in a 1993 press release, id Software had written that they expected Doom to be "the number one cause of decreased productivity in businesses around the world". Doom indeed became a problem in workplaces like Microsoft and Intel, and educational institutes like University of Louisville.
D1Awp TIL that the CIA commonly uses loud music played for days on end to drive detainees mad before interrigation. Some of the most popular tracks used include heavy death metal, the Barney theme song, and the song from the Meow Mix commercials.