› added 9 years ago

86

TIL that in 1964, a man placed himself in a box and had himself air-freighted from London to Australia because he couldn’t afford the airfare. He nearly died of dehydration.

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eWO5 TIL mathematician Zachary Harris hacked into Google’s email system and sent a e-mail phishing attack to Larry Page from Sergey Brin’s e-mail account. All because he noticed a flaw in an e-mail sent from Google offering him a job and thought it was a test. It wasn’t.
OoZaL TIL a radio station organized a bonfire to burn Beatles records after they claimed they were "more popular than Jesus". The next day, the station’s broadcast tower was struck by lightning, damaging equipment and sending the news director to the hospital
9wY7B TIL about Han Purple, a synthetic pigment used in ancient China, incl on the Terracotta Army. Use stopped in ~220 AD and it was rediscovered in 1990s. It was found that in very low temperatures and high pressure, it "loses" a dimension, acts as a 2D material, and is useful in quantum computing.
rNk5e TIL Len Hawkes - Leonard Donald Stanley "Chip" Hawkes member of the Tremeloes is the father of Chesney Hawkes.
6ELgw TIL that 6 nations in the EU have banned the wearing of the traditional Islamic burka (similar to hijab) mostly on grounds that it is a cultural clash.