› added 8 years ago

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TIL that after the British broke the enigma code based on a single flaw, they created their own similar code without that same flaw called “Typex”. The German military tried to crack it, but ultimately gave up.

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x6bww TIL that in 1998, Frito-Lay released their WOW! line of potato chips, marketed as “fat free” by being cooked in Olestra, an indigestible synthetic fat. It caused severe gastrointestinal problems including the now infamous “anal leakage”
Y7aLW TIL Orson Welles was locked out of the editing room of Touch of Evil. Editing fell to Aaron Stell, who was rendered "ill, depressed and unhappy with the studio's impatience." After a series of edits and reshoots Welles wrote a 58 page report of needed improvements.
51pQ TIL that in China it’s disrespectful to name your children after your relatives because you’ll spend much of your life talking down to a child with the same name as someone you should be respecting.
YVrZ TIL that Will Smith saved humanity from aliens on the same day two years in a row. First in Independence Day and again the next year in Men in Black.
nWwGP TIL in the mid-20th century, a researcher wore a pair of hand-engineered goggles that completely inverted his eyesight. Although he "stumbled wildly" at first, after 10 days he had grown so accustomed to his upside-down world that "paradoxically" everything began to appear rightside-up to him again.