› added 4 years ago

46

TIL Kevin Mitnick, the most famous computer hacker in the world, spent 8 months of a 5 year prison sentence in solitary confinement because law enforcement convinced a judge he had the ability to "start a nuclear war ... by dialing into the NORAD modem via payphone and whistling codes"

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

o5YK TIL that a breed of Scorpion-Eating Mice Feel No Pain. Instead of causing pain, the scorpion venom blocks it, a fact that could lead to the development of new pain-blocking drugs for people.
yX8V TIL Anthony Curcio put an ad on Craigslist for 15-20 similarly dressed workers for a fake cleanup project and to meet in a bank parking lot at the time he was to rob an armored truck. Curcio, dressed like the others, worked the grounds, pepper-sprayed the driver, and left with over $400,000.
R99a TIL when Scottish psychiatrist R.D. Laing faced a naked schizophrenic woman rocking silently to and fro in a padded cell, he took off his own clothes and sat next to her, rocking to the same rhythm until she spoke for the first time in months.
x6LJw TIL That In 1996 during an SAS training exercise 21 year old Bear Grylls broke his back after falling from 16,000 feet due to a torn parachute. 2 years later he climbed Mt. Everest becoming the youngest Briton to reach the world's highest peak at the time.
v1O1R TIL Keanu Reeves was sued by a woman who suggested that he used hypnosis and impersonated her ex-husband to impregnate her. She sought $3 million in spousal support from the actor, and $150,000/month, retroactively, in child support. DNA test proved he was not the father and the suit was thrown out.