› added 7 years ago

157

TIL about the "Impossible Literacy Test of 1964" that was given in Louisiana to those who wanted to vote. The test is to be taken in less than 10 minutes, the questions were intentionally vague and obtuse and if you failed, you couldn't vote. It was intentionally used to disenfranchise voters.

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N5vE TIL Tobey Maguire did 6 months of martial arts, weight training, and intensive gymnastics after the first Peter Parker scenes were shot in Spider-man 1 to shoot the rest of the transformation scene.
0rLv TIL When developing the Macintosh computer, Steve Jobs wanted to add a small mysterious character who would appear after about every 1000 times you used an OS UI element. He would wink at you and disappear so fast that you wouldn’t be sure he was real.
7rkLx TIL that the mirror 'self awareness' test was conducted on ants, and the results showed that they may actually be self aware. A blue dot was painted on individuals in a place they could not normally see, and they did not attempt to clean it off until they were in front of a mirror.
aXLy TIL that the yellow “sweat” stains commonly found on shirts in the armpit region are actually caused by a reaction with deodorants rather than sweat.
W7ExY TIL the 1970 song “In the Summertime” by Mungo Jerry was used in a 1990s UK advertisement for a campaign against drunk-driving, because of the lyric “have a drink, have a drive, go out and see what you can find.” The ad showed a group of drinkers at a rural pub getting killed when their car crashes.