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TIL that in the early days of Fed-Ex, there was one time the company couldn't afford the fuel bill for their planes, so the founder took the company's last $5,000 and went to Las Vegas and won $27,000 (en.wikipedia.org)

TIL that in 1972 a 33-year-old Hungarian geologist attacked Michelangelo's Pietà statue in St. Peter's Basilica wielding a geologist's hammer and shouting, "I am Jesus Christ—risen from the dead". Pri (en.wikipedia.org)

TIL that in 1972 a 33-year-old Hungarian geologist attacked Michelangelo’s Pietà statue in St. Peter’s Basilica wielding a geologist’s hammer and shouting, “I am Jesus Christ—risen from the dead”. Prior to this, he had moved to Rome intending to be recognised as Christ by the Pope.

TIL “The Dark Side of the Moon”’s cover is apparently public domain if you slapped the letters “CGI” on it (commons.wikimedia.org) Spanish

Some government employee made the “new logo” in the 90s for NCSA software (the Common Gateway Interface), and government work is public domain....

TIL Michael Richards (Kramer) was drafted into the US army and stationed in West Germany. He used the GI Bill to get a drama degree.

Richards graduated from Thousand Oaks High School. In 1968, he appeared as a contestant on The Dating Game, but was not chosen for the date. He was drafted into the United States Army in 1970. He trained as a medic and was stationed in West Germany where he was a member of a theatrical group called The Training Road Show.[12] He...

TIL Burger King sold a burger with so much food coloring that it turned people's poop bright green (www.usatoday.com)

TIL Guinness World Records and Ripley Entertainment (Ripley’s Believe It Or Not!) are owned by the same conglomerate based in Vancouver, BC. (www.cbc.ca)

TIL about professional audience plants called Claquers (en.wikipedia.org)

TIL about a company that ran a Ponzi scheme building solar panel trailers ... swapping serial numbs over a few built units as customers wanted to see them. (www.youtube.com)

Some more info in the Wikipedia article. And yes, this is about DC Solar, which I guess many americans will know but as someone from europe this was totally new to me....

TIL that Eminem was offered the lead role in the film "Elysium" but reportedly turned it down, leading director to instead cast Matt Damon. (en.wikipedia.org)

TIL the Japanese words 青 (ao) and 青い (aoi) can refer to either blue or green depending on the situation. (en.wikipedia.org)

TIL the Allies fielded thousands of tanks by the end of World War I, a major technological breakthrough. The Germans deployed just 18. (en.wikipedia.org)

TIL about the Gell-Mann amnesia effect; when experts find articles published within their field to be full of errors, but trust articles about other fields in the same publication (en.m.wikipedia.org)

TIL the mangaka Naoko Takeuchi (Sailor Moon) is married to another famous manga author Yoshihiro Togashi (Hunter x Hunter and Yu Yu Hakusho) (en.wikipedia.org)

TIL George Clooney was asked to play himself in a sketch for the Movie 43 (the gag was that Clooney is bad at picking up women), and Clooney replied "No fucking way." (en.wikipedia.org)

TIL kobolds in Japan are dog-people because of a mistranslation in a copy of AD&D in the 80s

I was reading about Dungeon Meshi and Kuro, the “kobold”....

TIL that VP Kamala Harris' Father Was a 'Marxist Economist'. (www.snopes.com)

TIL: The Black Panthers were key supporters of the Disability rights protests which eventually led to the passage of the Americans with Disabilities act

From Wikipedia...

TIL: Contrary to popular conception, non-monetary societies did not mainly rely on barter as a means of trade, but relied on gift economics and sometimes debt.

From wikipedia:...

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