› added 7 years ago

148

TIL A Card-Counter Named Bill Benter Developed An Algorithm For Betting On Hong Kong Horse Races That Earned Him Nearly A Billion Dollars

Read more bloomberg.com

via reddit.com

QnyM TIL the first (likely) artificial sweetener made by mankind poisoned a lot of Romans, due to its lead acetate content.
P86w TIL that The Shawshank Redemption’s director and writer, Frank Darabont, was offered $2.5 million from Rob Reiner to let him write and direct it instead, and cast Tom Cruise as Andy and Harrison Ford as Red. Darabont refused, saying that this was his “chance to do something really great.”
GAvME TIL one can live in Zu Zu, Tennessee, north of Yum Yum, and west of Dancyville .
yAYJ TIL Mick Foley nearly died during a wrestling match in 1998’s Hell in a Cell when he & Undertaker went off script. He was knocked unconscious after being thrown from the top of the cell, got up from the stretcher, climbed back up, choke slammed through the cell, and then once again on a bed of tacks
Mel1A TIL about Christopher Knight, a man that left his normal life at 20 years old to become a hermit. He lived in the wilderness, completely alone, for 27 years. He was apprehended only in 2013, after committing over a 1000 burglaries.