› added 6 months ago

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TIL that the first documented infringement of the Volstead Act was less than an hour after it came into force, when $100,000 worth of whisky was stolen by armed men.

R7daQ TIL that in the case of discovering aliens, we already have a representative who will handle all communication with them. Simonetta Di Pippo, is the current director of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs and is the designated person to act as an ambassador to extraterrestrials.
v1L8K TIL 9 and 1/2 weeks the film was based on a book about an actual short term adventurous relationship that turns abusive, and is actually noticeably darker than the film.
KO8nQ TIL of Henry Darger who created over 300 gorgeous, often giant and mostly very distubing pieces of artwork which were only discovered shortly before his death. His last words were "too late now" when someone mentioned his work which is now considered one of the most important "outisder art".
jNnpR TIL Jaycee Dugard survived an 18 year abduction. Because of her bravery, Dugard was awarded a Lifetime Leadership honor at the third annual The DVF Awards on March 9, 2012, for her courage and her JAYC Foundation, which provides support to families dealing with abduction and other losses.
E1bkV TIL that the first first-person shooter, Maze, was created in 1973. It included features like corner peeking, AI bots, and 8-player online play. In fact, it was so popular that DARPA had to ban it from ARPANET because half of all network activity for a month was between players at MIT and Stanford.