› added 8 years ago

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TIL that many tech companies stayed away from the use of male computerized voices because of HAL-9000 (from ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’)

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KOGkQ TIL Nazi Officials often got "sadistic" Nazi's to carry out the brutal killings of POW and Jews. This dates back to Genghis Khan's time when he gave his enemies a choice to surrender to avoid the psychological impact that was placed on a soldier.
m1mNY TIL Plywood has been around for at least 4500 years
gMod7 TIL of Léo Major. A Canadian soldier who single handedly captured 93 German soldiers and liberated the city of Zwolle, broke his back, went AWOA from hospital, rejoined his troops and then captured another 100 Germans and re-iberated the city of Zwolle again, by himself.
woOpo TIL that "air fryers" are real, and in fact aren't used to fry air - I legit thought that an air fryer is a made up gadget with a nonsensical purpose, created solely for the "You don't own an air fryer" meme. Now I know that it's an actual appliance, used to simulate deep frying with hot air.
M70ZV TIL of Wendy Carlos, who helped invent the Moog synthesizer and the first transgender person to receive a Grammy for her 1968 album Switched-On Bach (she won a total of 3 Grammys for this album).