› added 4 years ago

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TIL in 1975, advertising executive Gary Dahl listened to his friends complain about their pets, giving him the idea for the perfect pet: a rock. In just six months he sold over one million Pet Rocks for $4 each and became a millionaire.

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Z5pa TIL, in a 60’s government funded LSD study, “26 men unleashed a slew of widely embraced innovations shortly after their LSD experiences, including a mathematical theorem for NOR gate circuits, a conceptual model of a photon, a linear electron accelerator beam-steering device,” [and more….]
0rOL TIL that the Farmers Almanac has been in publication since 1792. Their predictions are based on 30 year statistical averages and “many longtime Almanac followers claim that our forecasts are 80% to 85% accurate.”
VML80 TIL that Hokusai, the artist behind the famous 'The Great Wave off Kanagawa', illustrated a series of shunga erotica called 'Dreams of the Fisherman's Wife' which includes vivid depictions of women having sex with octopus. Published in 1814
8aVQ4 TIL that Dragonflies are older than dinosaurs and used to have a wingspan of 2.5 feet
vM1K TIL In 1993, Dateline NBC strapped model rocket engines to GM trucks for a televised crash-test so the trucks would explode on impact. After a GM lawsuit, three producers were fired and the reporter demoted.