› added 10 years ago

85

TIL when developing N64s Goldeneye, Rare developers used a modified Sega Saturn controller for early playtesting & originally intended for weapon-reloading to be by unplugging/reinserting the N64 controller rumble pack. Each cartridge also contains a ZX Spectrum Emulator with 10 Rare-developed games

w96M TIL a Canadian native and animal trapper called Grey Owl gained prominence in the early 1900s as a respected environmental conservationist. Upon his death it was revealed that he was actually a transplanted Englishman named Archibald Belaney, who had been colouring his skin and dying his hair black.
R7Dja TIL that there is a punctuation mark for sarcasm. Introduced in 2010, the "SarcMark" looks like a reversed 6 with a dot in the middle. It is used just like the question mark or exclamation mark, except this mark indicates irony or sarcasm. However, anyone hoping to use it must pay $1.99 (£1.20).
jN0eX TIL it used to be common for woman in the US to wear extremely long metal hatpins but in 1910 hatpins longer than 9 inches were banned because woman were using them for self-defence and/or accidentally killing people with them.
Wrrd TIL in 1954 the USA overthrew the democratically elected Guatemalan President Jacobo Árbenz and ended the Guatemalan Revolution. It installed the military dictatorship of Carlos Castillo Armas, the first in a series of U.S.-backed dictators who ruled Guatemala.
6Eg0Y TIL almost all the stones/rocks used in the sport Curling is from the small uninhabited Scottish island, Ailsa Craig. The only other source of the stones is a quarry in Wales.