› added 2 years ago

78

TIL that a BBC variety program called "the Black and White Minstrel Show" — featuring white people singing and dancing in blackface — was broadcast until the late 1970s. Watched by 12-16 million Britons every week, it won awards and made it onto screens in many other countries, including Australia.

lALK TIL Eminem created Slim Shady when D12 (short for the dirty dozen) was formed. It included 6 rappers and their 6 alter egos.
vkpK TIL that “Kevin” is seen in Germany as a low-class name. In a phenomenon known as “Kevinismus”, those with the name reportedly experience discrimination; a joke claims that “Only druggies and East Germans are named Kevin”.
Oo8VL TIL of the Gell-Mann amnesia effect, coined by Michael Crichton after discussions with Nobel-Prize winning physicist Murray Gell-Mann, which defines the idea that, "I believe everything the media tells me except for anything for which I have direct personal knowledge, which they always get wrong."
8aVRP TIL about Leo Marks, WW2 cryptographer, who was given a 20 minute training exercise on his first day at work which took him the whole day to complete. He had accidentally not been given the cipher key and ended up breaking a code that was meant to be secure.
ggXW TIL there was a bull named Bodacious, often described as “The World’s Most Dangerous Bull.” He was infamously known to incapacitate and injure rodeo riders, often crushing their facial bones with his signature power move. He was forced into retirement in 1995 for fear of injuring more competitors.