› added 10 years ago

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TIL diamonds aren’t rare; their demand is a marketing invention. In 1938 De Beers hired an ad agency who arbitrarily decided that a diamond engagement ring is worth 1 month’s salary. It worked so well they increased it to 2 months’ salary. De Beers carefully restricts supply to keep the prices high.

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RlV1 TIL in Assassin’s Creed every named character you kill is not only a real historical figure, but their death in the game is in the same year and location as their death IRL.
AbOn TIL that we haven’t evolved quickly enough to adapt to society’s overwhelming stimuli otherwise known as supernormal stimuli
7rJ9x TIL during filming of the chestburster scene in Alien, Ridley Scott wasn't getting the reaction he wanted from the cast, so he privately told the SFX team to spray them with an enormous amount of blood during the next take, which caused some of the cast to become physically ill. They used that take.
69XbZ TIL Canadian Spitfire ace Doug Lindsay with 3 Wingmen were ordered to intercept 40 German Aircraft over France in WW2 and survived destroying 3 enemies.
kOnB1 TIL about Bruce Murray. A South African signmaker, in 2012, he inherited 120,000 acres of land and a dutchy in Scotland. He is now the commander of the only legal private army in Europe, the Atholl Highlanders.