› added 10 years ago

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TIL the next Y2K like event will happen in 2038. But the sun will swallow the earth before we have to worry about a date problem again if systems use a 64bit date value.

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BrVKe TIL that in Star Trek, Captain Kirk's phrase "You have the conn" has its origins in early battleships dating as far back as the 1860s; these ships were built with conning towers. A conning tower is a raised platform on a ship or submarine from which an officer in charge can issue commands.
QJOke TIL about Otávio Jordão da Silva, a 20 year old Brazilian soccer/football referee who was stoned, beheaded, and quartered by spectators after he stabbed a player who punched him for making a controversial call. His head was put on a stake in the field.
ne57G TIL J.R.R Tolkien was trained as a codebreaker during WWII, and would have worked with Alan Turing to crack Germany’s Enigma Machine, if he hadn’t turned down the offer first.
bab4 TIL that in 2006, the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia launched a $1.2 million program to retrain prostitutes as nursing-home caregivers. A supporter explained they had “good people skills, aren’t easily disgusted, and have zero fear of physical contact.”
b9bk9 TIL that BubbleBoy, one of the very first malwares able to activate itself, was created and named after the eponymous Seinfeld episode. The worm would change the owner's name to "BubbleBoy" and the organization to "Vandelay Industries", which was a recurring joke on Seinfeld.