› added 13 years ago

114

TIL the screenwriter of “Cast Away” deliberately stranded himself on an isolated beach for a week, to experience how Tom Hanks’ character would have to search for water, food and shelter. During this time, a volleyball washed up on shore, inspiring the “Wilson” character

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

Xn4R TIL that one of the seven wonders of the world, the Temple of Artemis, was burned down by an arson who wished to be famous for his crime. Following his execution, the Ancient Greeks made it an offence subject to the death penalty to mention his name.
yVd1a TIL of the Iriadamant, a short lived community of mainly foreign people dressed in Native American outfits who lived in Northern Finland lead by a local professor who wanted to learn self sufficiency. After the experiment failed, it turned into a eco-cult whose members lived in extreme poverty.
GaeJ TIL: South Africa has no legally defined capital city. Power is shared between Cape Town (Parliament), Bloemfontein (Administrative), Pretoria (President & Cabinet) and Johannesburg (Constitutional Court).
o1ao TIL Not all vampires were staked through the heart, some were staked through the leg to prevent them from rising from their coffins [post from /r/archeology]
nWmN7 TIL National Geographic editor Bill Garrett was fired from the magazine in 1990 because he wanted to publish more controversial features that raised production costs and stories about AIDS, Exxon Valdez oil spill were published under his direction