› added 13 years ago

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TIL that, in level 3-3 of the original Super Mario Bros, it is actually possible to jump over the flagpole. An unending brick road lies beyond the castle.

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XEgB8 TIL Before antibiotics, patients with Tuberculosis were sent to Colorado Springs as it was believed dry air and sunshine helped in the treatment. TB sanatoriums, or small hut-like structures with ventilation, still litter backyards and properties around the city.
a8JmM TIL Andrew Carnegie became one of the richest Americans in history before donating most of his wealth to charity. However, at his childhood job in the mid-1800s, he earned only $1.20 for 72 working hours. In 2023 dollars, Carnegie earned around $46 per week or 63 cents/hour.
MeoWB TIL that for decades the CIA owned and ran Crypto, a Swiss company that supplied cryptography equipment to many countries; naturally, the machines were rigged to give US spooks access to everyone's communications.
lbv7 TIL Japaneses invented a machine that un-censor japanese pornography.
47vb TIL that the influential American poet Walt Whitman’s collection of poetry,“Leaves of Grass”, was so controversial when first published in 1855 for its reference to open sexuality & homosexuality, that a major literary weekly publication recommended in its review that Whitman kill himself.