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TIL that if you post a funny video to YouTube and it starts to get popular, a producer from America’s Funniest Home Videos might ask you to take down the video and sign over exclusive rights in exchange for a chance at winning $100,000. The creator of “David after Dentist” turned down such an offer.

Read more wired.com

via reddit.com

pmlO TIL I learned that a financial investigator proved mathematically that Bernie Madoff was a fraud in 2000, 9 years before his pyramid scheme collapsed
M7AXa TIL about Lake Vostok, an Antarctic subglacial lake kept liquid at -3 degrees Celsius due to the sheer pressure of the 4000 meters thick ice sheet above it. Having been isolated for around 25 million years, the lake is said to hold clues about potential extraterrestial life on the icy moon Europa
XE4bP TIL: In 1696, William III introduced a tax which required those living in houses with more than 6 windows to pay a levy.To avoid this, house owners would brick up all windows except 6. As the bricked-up windows prevented rooms from receiving any sunlight, the tax was known as daylight robbery.
nenpd TIL Al Capone was the first person to open a soup kitchen to feed the poor during the Depression. At a time of 25 percent unemployment, Capone's kitchens served three meals a day to ensure that everyone who had lost a job could get a meal. Soon, every city and town had a soup kitchen.
l7LVN TIL in Finland, molybdomancy, or predicting future through the shape of molten tin, is a tradition for New Year's Eve