/f/todayilearned
TIL in 2010, Washington D.C. held a mock election and invited hackers to test its online voting system. They managed to elect Master Control Program from "Tron" as mayor, Skynet from "Terminator" to Congress, and Bender from "Futurama" to the school board. It took D.C. officials two days to notice.
theglobeandmail.comSubmitted by Johnnycockseed t3_zfdclx
TIL John von Newmann was a child prodigy who could divide 8-digit numbers in his head by age 6. By age 8, he was fluent in Ancient Greek, had mastered calculus and would amuse his parents' friends by reciting book pages after just glancing at them. He also developed the modern computer architecture.
atomicheritage.orgSubmitted by HumanNutrStudent t3_zeutdf
TIL The Stranger (1946) was the first Hollywood film to include footage of the Holocaust. The film's director, Orson Welles, who saw footage at the United Nations Conference on International Organization in May 1945, described the newsreels as "putrefaction of the soul, a perfect spiritual garbage"
en.wikipedia.orgSubmitted by jamescookenotthatone t3_ze4gxg
TIL of Vitalis of Gaza, a monk who paid prostitutes his daily wages to dissuade them from the profession. The women he served later carried him to his grave, processing him with candles and lanterns. The Catholic Church venerates him as the Patron Saint of Prostitutes and Day Laborers.
en.wikipedia.orgSubmitted by PastPriority-771 t3_zeif5p
TIL about the Asoh defense, a term for just taking the blame when you're at fault. It’s named after a Japanese pilot named Kohei Asoh, who crash landed a full passenger jet in the San Francisco Bay. When asked what happened, he said: “As you Americans say, I f-cked up.”
sfgate.comSubmitted by That-Situation-4262 t3_zdsrtg
TIL: Samuel Byck tried to assassinate President Nixon by hijacking a plane and crashing it into the White House. Byck drove to BWI, shot a police officer, stormed a Delta aircraft and shot the two pilots. Police stopped Byck before the plane ever moved, but Nixon was in the White House at the time.
en.wikipedia.orgSubmitted by theotherbogart t3_zcs5e2
TIL that a pair of man-made structures which are older than the pyramids, one of which has been dated to be the among the oldest known human structures on earth, are located on the LSU campus and were used for tailgate parties as recently as 2010.
en.wikipedia.orgSubmitted by General_McQuack t3_zdinr4
TIL about the Glass Armonica, a musical instrument invented by Ben Franklin. Inspired by playing glass cups, bowls were mounted on a rotating spindle allowing a musician with wet fingers to play music. Mozart and Beethoven wrote for it but after 60 years strange rumors spread and it fell out of use.
fi.eduSubmitted by marmorset t3_zd83bs
TIL about Ted's bottle. Ted d’Auvergne, a New Zealand WW2 soldier was at the pub and late for his embarkation train. He asked the publican to set aside his 2nd bottle of beer to drink when he came home. Ted was killed but the promise was kept and that bottle of beer is still there
waimate.org.nzSubmitted by Spare-Cap-3152 t3_zcqenq
TIL a group of religious folks in Canada that believed in anarchy, vegetarianism and being naked clashed violently with the government. They detonated bombs and had naked protest parades because they felt their land and children were being unfairly taken from them
bitterwinter.orgSubmitted by RainManToothpicks t3_zbuf7k