› added 9 years ago

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TIL a man from China bought a first class ticket which came with access to a VIP lounge and flyers could get a free meal. He rescheduled over 300 times over a year to enjoy (presumably) over 300 meals. When investigated, he canceled the ticket and got a full refund.

e976 TIL the HP Lovecraft novella “At the Mountains of Madness” was planned to be adapted into a film directed by Guillermo del Toro, produced by James Cameron, but it has not been greenlit since 2011 due to Universal Studios wanting it to be a PG-13-rated film instead of R-rated.
v14kj TIL about invasive North American earth worms. All areas of North America that were covered in ice in the last ice age were devoid of worms before European colonization. If you've even encountered an earth worm north of the 45th parallel, it's almost guaranteed to be an Asian or European species.
Oo04 TIL A Finnish sports brand Karhu Sports sold the three stripe trademark to Adidas for (the equivalent of) €1,600 euros and two bottles of Whiskey.
gM8AX TIL: African Pygmy tribes were essentially atheistic and were observed to have no cults, no rites, no totems, no deities, and no spirits. Dead were buried without ceremonies or gifts and received no further attention. They even appeared to lack simple superstitions, according to travelers' reports
7r0NX TIL Steve Jobs presented the first Macintosh with a Japanese painting because he was inspired by Zen Buddhism and his love of Japanese cuisine, but there was another lesser-known facet of Jobs' interest in Japanese culture: he was an ardent fan and collector of shin-hanga, or modern woodcuts.