› added 6 years ago

127

TIL that hiccups is the same phenomenon as hypnic jerk (the contraction that makes you wake up suddenly when you're falling asleep). It's called a myoclonic jerk of the diaphragm.

bVk7 TIL Microsoft sued a high school student named Mike Rowe after he registered the domain MikeRoweSoft.com. He eventually gave up the domain for an Xbox (among other things). He later sold legal documents from the case on eBay for $1,037 as “a piece of Internet history.”
ZpMxY TIL Harvey Comics, the creators of Casper, sued Columbia Pictures, alleging their Ghostbusters logo was too similar to Fatso from the Ghostly Trio. Harvey sought $50m and the destruction of all copies of the film.
D1GyV TIL about Fitzwilliam Notebook, which was a diary kept by Isaac Newton when he was 19 or 20 years old. It contained a list of Newton's 57 deeds that he considered sins. The list included entries like 'making pies on Sunday night', 'calling Dorothy Rose a jade' etc.
DRlg TIL the designer of the Porsche 911, Butzi Porsche, was kicked out of industrial design school in his first year for apparent lack of talent. When he went to work for his father at Porsche, the company’s design director rejected his ideas, so he had the 911 prototype built by an outside contractor.
NXP46 TIL A camel's hump does not hold water. It actually stores fat. The camel uses it as nourishment when food is scarce. If a camel uses the fat inside the hump, the hump will become limp and droop down. With proper food and rest, the hump will return to normal.