🎓 TIL - Today I Learned but no 🐝

TIL that the "pre-filled" tax return is a new innovation in the tax world used by 90% of OECD countries. Gov't. administrators pre-fill a tax return based on data collected. In China, 85% of VAT refund applications info is pre-filled. The IRS, the USA's tax agency, does not offer pre-filled returns. [source, comments]

TIL that in 2014, a recall was issued for about 2.2 million bean bag chairs that had zippers on them after two children were found dead inside two of the chairs, having suffocated from lack of air and from inhaling the chair's foam beads. [source, comments]

TIL that the 2011 dark/action comedy film “30 Minutes or Less” mirrors a real-life event where a pizza delivery driver was forced to wear a bomb collar and rob a bank, ultimately dying when the bomb detonated, though the filmmakers denied knowledge of the real-life story. [source, comments]

TIL that in 2010, UCF professor Richard Quinn uncovered a massive cheating scandal by analyzing statistical anomalies in exam scores, prompting 205 students to come forward and forcing all 600 to retake the exam. [source, comments]

TIL that the inspiration for Norman Rockwell's "Freedom Of Speech" painting was a man in a rural town hall meeting arguing against rebuilding a burned-down school in 1943 because it would raise his taxes [source, comments]

TIL that in 2016, a Chinese artist spent 3 days building a $15,000 LEGO statue or Nick Wilde from Zootopia. Shortly after it was put on display, a 4-year-old boy accidentally knocked it over, destroying it. The artist refused an offer of compensation from the parents. [source, comments]

TIL in 2016, a sweet shop owner in Pakistan confessed to mixing a highly toxic pesticide into the sweets after an argument with his brother and co-owner. From 20 April to 8 May 2016, at least 33 people, including five children, died from the purposely poisoned baked confection. [source, comments]

TIL you could fit every planet in the Solar System between Earth and the Moon [source, comments]

TIL the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Movie pitch was to have starred comedians Sam Kinison, Gallagher, Bobcat Goldthwait and Billy Crystal in green make-up as the turtles. [source, comments]

TIL about Randy Gardner, a 17 year old who spent 11 days and 25 minutes without sleep [source, comments]

TIL that King Charles III’s paternal grandfather, Prince Andrew of Greece, was a Major General in the Greco-Turkish War and got court-martialed and exiled after being blamed for losing the important Battle of the Sakarya which caused the Greek defeat in the war. [source, comments]

TIL Albert Einstein, besides his work as a physicist and mathematician was also a Fridge engineer. Together with a former student Leo Szilard he helped invent several new technologies in refrigeration and jointly held 45 patents, including a design for a fridge with no moving parts. [source, comments]

TIL that the grand opera "Faust" was so popular in early decades of NYC's Metropolitan Opera that it used to be nicknamed "Faustspielhaus". It remains the fifth most performed opera overall. [source, comments]

TIL the longest-standing record chronicled in The Guinness Book of Records belongs to the monk, St Simeon the Stylite (c. AD 386–459), who spent approximately 39 years on a stone pillar in Syria. His purpose was self-persecution for people's sins, and to be nearer God. [source, comments]

TIL that Mel Gibson was considered for (and was interested in) playing the titular Oskar Schindler in "Schindler's List". [source, comments]

TIL That Theodore Roosevelt received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906 for negotiating peace in the Russo-Japanese and also resolved a dispute with Mexico by resorting to arbitration. [source, comments]

TIL about heraldic hatching, a historical method of representing color without color. [source, comments]

TIL that in 1814, British naturalist James Sowerby made a sword from meteoritic iron as a gift for Russian Emperor Alexander I. [source, comments]

TIL: Eumenes of Cardia who went from being Alexander the Great's secretary to defeating one of Alexander's greatest generals in his first major battle [source, comments]

TIL Lebanon divides its highest political offices by religion: the president must be a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim, and the speaker of parliament a Shia Muslim, under its religious power-sharing system. [source, comments]