› added 10 years ago

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TIL private companies can outsource call centers to US federal inmates in lieu of offshoring. Federal Prison Industries pays inmates between $0.23/hr and $1.15/hr.

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KYQ4E TIL about a man in Raleigh, NC creating a massive street art sculpture known as the 'barrel monster' using stolen construction barrels. Despite the construction company who owned the barrels appreciating it and the publicity it created and not wanting to press charges, the man was arrested anyway.
XLAj TIL our current model of physics only works for 4% of the matter/energy in the universe
4Xyob TIL in 1970 Nike offered Spencer Haywood either $100,000 or 10 percent of the company in exchange for promoting the company’s shoes. He chose the 100k over the stock that would be worth $8.6 billion today
4XDw6 TIL: In 2000, an Australian man, after having his job application rejected, managed to hack into the local government's waste management system using a computer and radio, flooding parks, rivers, and the lawn of a hotel with raw sewage.
9lpD TIL that British Rail once held up a train for 20 minutes so that a distraught man could get to his mother in hospital before she died.