› added 12 years ago

300

TIL that a 92 year old man named Hyman Strachman pirates movies and then sends them overseas to soldiers, using his own money. He has sent over 300,000 discs so far.

Read more nytimes.com

via reddit.com

gMYMD TIL legendary composer Danny Elfman, behind such classics as the Simpsons theme song as well as the Nightmare before Christmas soundtrack, also wrote the song "Little Girls", also known as the Pedobear Song.
4XOBN TIL Imperial China was the first nation to implement a system for civil service examination, testing knowledge from History to Military subjects. The British East Company got interested and used it for their admissions. Now, its the base model for similar exams throughout western nations to this day
jNyEQ TIL: When the Krakatoa volcano erupted in 1883, It was so powerful that it ruptured the eardrums of sailors 64 km (40 miles) away on ships in the Sunda Strait
QNGGa TIL about the "Infernal Machine", a 25-barreled gun that the Corsican revolutionary Giuseppe Fieschi tried to assassinate King Louis Phillippe I with in 1835. The device killed 18 people in a single volley and injured 22 (as well as Fieschi himself), but only mildly grazed the King.
6EPGZ TIL that Purple Passion Fruit (Passiflora incarnata) not only is used as herbal medicine. You can dry and use the leaves to make tea and can also smoke the dry leaf. Study’s shown that the extract from the plant performs as well as some benzodiazepines but with fewer side effects.