› added 5 years ago

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TIL that Mark Knopfler agreed to allow Weird Al to parody "Money For Nothing" on the condition that Knopfler play the lead guitar on the track to add "authenticity."

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JpM1 TIL a 18C. astronomer went to India to see a Transit of Venus. Delayed, he missed it, but decided to stay for the next one, in 8 years. The second try was clouded out. 3 years later he returned to France to find he’d been declared dead, his wife had remarried, and his estate was gone
OdGR TIL that there is a secretive genre of electronic music called Black Midi which uses almost every single note at once
EE97 TIL in 1987 a Chicago tv station had its broadcast interrupted by a pirate signal that showed a man in mask being spanked with a fly swatter. Despite investigations by the FCC and FBI, this became the only known incident in which a hacker interrupted a major tv broadcast without getting caught
e0Z8J TIL that Julius Caesar was arguing with Cato in the senate. A messenger delivered a note to Caesar. Cato told Caesar to read it aloud. Caesar handed the note to Cato to read. The note was actually a love letter from Cato’s sister, who was madly in love with Caesar. Cato said, "Keep it you drunk."
PYaRO TIL - Tobacco companies knew the smoking - lung cancer link in 1930s and engaged in a coordinated coverup until at least 2000. The were finally convicted of Racketeering in 2006 in United States v. Philip Morris (and appealed to the Supreme Court)