› added 1 year ago

43

TIL about Operation Abacus, a Canadian military operation in response to anticipated disruption due to the Y2K bug. It was intended as a contingency plan not just to coordinate the protection of government computers but also ensure social order if computing systems went down.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

QJGxE TIL that "blue raspberry" is simply artificial raspberry flavoring, and its widespread use of being colored blue is credited to the ICEE brand who wanted their signature flavors (the other being red cherry) to match their logo.
e0J9g TIL that according to Beninese oral tradition, king Dakodonu asked for land from a local chief called Dan, which he replied "Should I open up my belly and build you a house in it?" Dan was killed on the spot and the new kingdom was named Dahomey, which means "inside of the chief's belly".
5VK4R TIL the O2 arena in Greenwich has 12 giant pillars jutting out of the roof to represent the 12 hours on a clock face, and the 12 months of the year. It also has a 365-meter diameter to represent the days in the year, and a 52-meter height to represent the weeks in a year.
YR8B TIL that Henry Ford loved Hitler and received the Nazi regime’s highest medal for a foreigner
0wjyy TIL, due to an increase in Internet addiction in South Korea, the government passed a law in 2011 called the Cinderella or Shutdown law. This policy bans children under the age of 16 from playing online games between 12am to 6am.