› added 8 years ago

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TIL of a program called SoftRAM95, claiming to double your RAM without a hardware upgrade. It sold 600,000 copies at $79.95 and did absolutely nothing.

N7rPb TIL that the term "litterbug" was popularized by Keep America Beautiful, which was created by "beer, beer cans, bottles, soft drinks, candy, cigarettes" manufacturers to shift public debate away from radical legislation to control the amount of waste these companies were (and still are) putting out.
W7d9B TIL Sonora Carver; one of the first female horse divers, continued horse diving for 11 more years after being blinded from hitting the water with open eyes off of Atlantic City's Steel Pier. Horse diving was a stunt where a horse would be ridden off a 40-60 foot tower into a body of water.
E18Qo TIL that due to internet rumors and some media articles, some folks eat fruit/veggie UPC codes intentionally. Mistaking the idea that “It’s ok to accidentally consume a sticker” for “the FDA regulates them and the stickers have nutritional value.”
PYy5Z TIL a Guatemalan boy saw soldiers come into his village and murder his parents along with the rest of the village, was adopted and raised in an abusive household by one of the men who massacred the villagers, and later gave testimony that sent the killer to prison with a 6,000 year sentence
OG55a TIL the second and third groups of people to circumnavigate the globe did so unwillingly. They were Spanish expeditions that sailed the Atlantic and Pacific to the East Indies and the Philippines, captured by the Portuguese, and taken captive to Lisbon by way of the Indian and Atlantic.