› added 10 months ago

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TIL that the infamous Pac-Man kill screen is caused by an overflow error causing the game to try and draw 256 pieces of fruit. However, the code then starts drawing random garbled pieces of memory, causing half the screen to get covered in random graphics that the game interprets as fruit.

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via reddit.com

JDVk TIL that the Wright Brothers’ first powered flight in 1903 “did not create public excitement—if people even knew about them—and the news soon faded”. In fact, they were largely mocked and disregarded until a demonstration in France nearly 5 years later.
Meop8 TIL about the Chloe Cooley incident, in which a young black woman was seen being forced into a boat to be sold in 1793. This incident was observed by several witnesses, who then petitioned the Executive Council of Upper Canada, which eventually led to the passage of the Act Against Slavery, 1793.
XEZXP TIL that the A340 that used to fly the world's longest commercial flight from NY to Singapore had lockers onboard to store any corpses that died mid-flight as there were few places they could divert
4w7o TIL When LimeWire shut down back in 2010, the copyright damages were totaled to be ~$72 Trillion, greater than the sum of the world GDP, which came out to approximately $105,000 for every time one of the 11,000 copyrighted songs was downloaded. It was later settled with the RIAA for $105 Million.
R7XP7 TIL that first responders are often given a stork pin to wear on their uniform to commemorate assisting with a birth in the field.