› added 11 years ago

210

TIL during his time in the army James Blunt once disobeyed orders from a US general - to attack a group of Russian troops.

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P18vZ TIL that in the late 1920s, Henry Ford tried to build a town called Fordlandia in the Brazilian jungle for the purpose of supplying tire rubber. Designed to be inhabited by 10,000 people, the project totally failed from poor management, disease, worker unrest, and other factors.
6nW TIL The Sims was originally designed as an architecture simulator, with sims only there to evaluate builds
l7E87 TIL of the Gruen effect, a psychological phenomenon where a store's design overwhelms a person so they are more easily manipulated to buy things. It is named after architect Victor Gruen, who disapproved of the techniques
Pmoe TIL That when Marjorie Gross, writer for Seinfeld (and others) was dying of Ovarian Cancer, she found humor in her imminent death by joking that she wanted to hold on until November 1996 so that she wouldn’t be reincarnated as Madonna’s child as she was pregnant at the time.
yVn0e TIL infamous Jimmy Saville, a true "master of hiding in public", was familiar with British upper class, so much so former Prince and today's King Charles would ask HIM instead of all of his stuff for advice on delicate speeches because he considered Saville down to earth and a man of the people.