› added 10 years ago

190

TIL when Oprah gave the audience cars back in 2004, they were not really free. They had to pay about $6,000 in federal and income taxes. Some people paid the taxes by taking out car loans; others traded their new Pontiacs for cheaper, less souped-up cars.

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JpKm TIL Stephen King didn’t get paid for “The Shawshank Redemption” because he never cashed the check
gMNA7 TIL that 'Star Spangled Banner' only became the anthem of the USA in 1931, after the huge outcry caused by Robert Ripley, who denounced in one of his famous "Believe it or Not" cartoons that the country, in fact, had no official anthem up until then.
QJDOk TIL that the trick from "Office Space" where they stole tiny fractions of a cent from a large number of transactions and put it into their own bank accounts is called 'salami slicing'
9jpr TIL of the Japan Air 123 accident, the deadliest single aircraft crash of all time. Crew could not control the plane so they used thrust to go up and down and differential trust to turn. It crashed after 32min. No simulation reconstruction held out as long as the crew did.
4kXPo TIL An orange tree blight began spreading from China in the 90s. It has now infected trees worldwide and is decimating orange production. Orange harvest is down 72% in Florida and 31% in Brazil. There is no known cure for the blight and scientists are frantically trying to find a cure.