“TIL: Tracy Chapman sued Nicki Minaj for copyright infringement. According to the complaint, Chapman repeatedly refused to give Minaj permission to sample one of her songs, but Minaj did it anyway. Minaj settled and agreed to pay Chapman $450K.”
“TIL During pregnancy, if the mother suffers organ damage, the baby in the womb sends stem cells to repair the damaged organ.”
“TIL The Spanish Inquisition would write to you, giving 30 days notice before arriving and these were read out during Sunday Mass. Although these edicts were eventually phased out, you originally always expected the Spanish Inquisition.”
“TIL: One in four American cowboys were black.”
“TIL Simeon Stylites lived on top of columns for 37 years. Simeon did this as a form of asceticism because when he lived in a cave people kept making pilgrimages to him and asking him religious questions. Ultimately his column life drew in even bigger crowds who would climb ladders to talk to him.”
“TIL the eunuchs of the last Chinese emperor wore their severed testicles and penises in jars around their necks when working.”
“TIL in 2019 a Brazilian drug trafficker serving a 73 yr sentence tried to escape from prison by disguising himself as his teenage daughter who was visiting. His plan was to leave her behind in his place but his nervousness as he approached the exit tipped off the guards.He hung himself 3 days later.”
“TIL The Arabian Oryx became extinct in the wild by the early 1970s, but was saved in zoos and private reserves, and was reintroduced into the wild starting in 1980. In 2011, it was the first animal to revert to vulnerable status on the IUCN Red List after previously being listed as extinct.”
“TIL As a child, Walt Disney’s mom convinced his dad, Elias, to buy him a set of colored pencils and some drawing paper. Elias did not approve, believing the boy should spend time engaged in hard, manual labor. Even after Walt became famous, Elias never considered animation a real job.”
“TIL that the Philippines is 1 out 2 countries in the world that still doesn’t allow divorce. It also has the 10th highest number of child brides globally, with 100,000 women married before their 15th birthday.”
“TIL The aardwolf knows not to destory its food sources. Aardwolves eat part of a termite mound, leaves it, and return a few months later when the colony has rebuilt so it can have another meal. An aardwolf keeps track of mounds it attacked and can eat 250,000 termites in a single night.”
“TIL – Walter Orthmann, a 100 year old, set the Guinness World Record for working at the same company for 84 years and nine days.”
“TIL of “The Paradox of Choice.” Research indicates that when we are given too many options to choose from, we tend to end up less satisfied than if we had fewer options to choose from. Increased choice leads to higher expectations, followed by regret and self-blame.”
“TIL Margaret Knight (1838-1914) invented a machine to mass produce flat-bottomed paper bags and, after winning a lawsuit against a fraudster who copied her design, the patent was issued in 1871. Her first invention was when she was 12 years old (and began working in a factory). She had 87 patents.”
“TIL of Khalid bin Mohsen Shaari, a Saudi who was the heaviest man alive at 1,340 lb. When Saudi King Abdullah heard of this, Khalid was ordered to a medical center in Riyadh. In about four years, Khalid would weigh 150 lb.”
“TIL that “Firehawks” a collection of three Australian bird species, are the only animals besides humans known to use fire to hunt. They will pick up burning sticks from fires and carry them in their beaks and talons before dropping it in unburnt vegetation setting the ground ablaze driving prey out.”
“TIL a special law in the UK was created to ensure that the Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital will forever be able to collect royalties from stage performances, audiobooks, book releases, etc. of Peter Pan in the UK. This is the only work with an ‘exception’ to copyright laws.”
“TIL in 1996, a 21-year-old man burst into a New Zealand radio station, took the manager hostage and demanded that Kermit the Frog’s rendition of Rainbow Connection be played.”
“TIL that Slash, guitarist of Guns N’ Roses, helped fund the dinosaur exhibit at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.”
“TIL hippos have a reflex mechanism that allows them to pop up, take a breath, and go back down without waking up so they can sleep underwater.”
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