› added 12 years ago

119

TIL the first version of The Game of Life featured a suicide square.

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GM64 TIL that the philtrum (the groove in the middle of your upper lip) exists in all mammals. It’s much narrower in non-primates, and uses capillary action to keep the nose wet with saliva (ie. wet nose = good for dogs). A wet nose is better at trapping odors, hence the purpose of the philtrum.
GYOxG TIL that Louisa May Alcott, the author of "Little Women," never actually wanted to write the book. She thought of the genre as "moral pap for the young," and only decided to write this novel in order to help her father.
rNb1 TIL Bill Nye’s TV career began on a local Seattle sketch comedy show named Almost Live. He was an engineer at Boeing at the time.
pY9d8 TIL William Shatner and Adam West starred in a failed pilot called "Alexander the Great" which West called "one of the worst scripts I have ever read and it was one of the worst things I've ever done."
WDgd TIL the warning tones played before an Emergency Alert Broadcast contain information and automatically activate the system by audio alone. Playback of the recorded tones (like in an an ad) over TV or radio can kick the actual system online, resulting in heavy fines.