› added 12 years ago

113

TIL “cracker” as an insult means “one who cracks the whip”.

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eOgk TIL after Hurricane Ike in 2008, Comcast customers were billed for unreturned equipment that had been destroyed by the hurricane. Customers were charged as much as $1000 for failing to return modems, DVRs, and other equipment that had been lost or destroyed.
v87j TIL Nike made a commercial with a Samburu tribesman saying “Just Do it” in his native language. An American anthropologist called them out. He actually said “I don’t want these, give me big shoes.” Nike’s response: “We thought nobody in America would know what he said.”
j69xQ TIL America and France fought an undeclared naval “Quasi-War” from 1798-1801, during which the Logan Act was passed into law, prohibiting diplomatic negotiations between a foreign power and private American citizens.
j6Xkn Til Canadian Department of Fisheries mounted a .50 caliber machine-gun overlooking Seymour Narrows with the intent to shoot and kill passing orcas. However it was never fired.
VLQD TIL: in 1975, after a skydiving student’s main parachute became entangled with the plane, he deployed his reserve chute. This caused the plane to stall and engines to fail. Everybody on board survived as the plane descended under the reserve chute.