› added 11 years ago

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TIL that in 1993 Pepsi ran a contest in the Philippines in which it promised 1 million pesos, roughly $40,000, to the person who found the number 349 inside his bottle cap. Pepsi went on to mistakenly print 800,000 winning caps, leading to outrage and death threats to Pepsi executives.

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p8WJN TIL that one can die from laughter. Chrysippus of Soli, a Greek stoic philosopher is said to have died this way at the age of 73. As he watched a donkey eat some figs he died in a fit of laughter.
JYxdv TIL The Barnum Effect is the phenomenon that occurs when individuals believe that personality descriptions apply specifically to them, despite the fact that the description is actually filled with information that applies to everyone.
p8ZbO TIL about Aimo Koivunen, who overdosed on methamphetamine in WW2 while evading Soviet forces and ended up skiing 100km during the night losing his squad, ammunition and food supplies
GdBJ TIL the optimal strategy of finding a good partner is to reject the first 37% of potentials, and then pick the first person better than anyone seen so far
4k9JJ TIL that Postal codes in Slovakia and Czechia are inherited from Czechoslovakia and do not overlap. Czech part had areas starting from 1 to 7 and Slovak part had 8,9 and 0. Old system was good enough and there was no reason for authorities to change it after the countries separated in 1993.