› added 5 years ago

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TIL that US Navy periscope operators now use Xbox controllers, as the original control stick was deemed too complicated and a lot more expensive. Xbox controllers are so widely used that the learning time is hugely reduced, and they cost $37,980 less.

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R5Nr7 TIL that Lucille Ball convinced Merv Griffin to hire Alex Trebek to host the revival of Jeopardy in 1984 when original host Art Fleming, a friend of Trebek’s, declined to return. Trebek holds the Guinness World Records for most episodes of a game show hosted, hosted the show until his death in 2020.
g4v4 TIL Coca Cola was invented by morphine addicted Confederate Colonel John Pemberton as a morphine substitute and its original ingredients include coca leaves which is the raw material for manufacture of cocaine.
WKl8 TIL Black Americans preferred staying with British Soldiers during WWII due to the abuse their fellow Americans hurled at them. Americans even tried to implement segregation in the UK.
eW06 TIL In the US, “Muslim women are at least as likely as Muslim men to hold a college or post-graduate degree, and Muslim women are more likely to work in a professional environment than women from most other U.S. religious groups.”
OoN94 TIL The chief of security of the company hired to organize and promote McDonald's giveaways, stole almost all of the top prizes between 1995 and 2000. The scam netted over $24 million. The trial began on September 10, 2001, but was overshadowed in the media by the September 11 attacks.