🎓 TIL - Today I Learned but no 🐝

TIL that, because dolls, which represent human figures, are taxed higher than toys, which represent non human figures, like robots or monsters, Marvel argued in court that mutants are not human, therefore they should pay the lower toy's tax for their action figures. [source, comments]

TIL: President Nixon worked for months to learn to use chopsticks, in preparation for the dinner banquets on his opening visit to the People's Republic of China in February 1972. [source, comments]

TIL there’s an ancient Persian poem wishing the coming of King Vahram from India to save them from Islamic-Arabian conquest. [source, comments]

TIL that Robert Kirkman originally got "The Walking Dead" greenlit by lying to publishers. He falsely promised them the zombie outbreak was an alien plot to weaken Earth, but once the comic became a massive success, he admitted he made the alien part up just to get published. [source, comments]

TIL Pope Leo XIV still plays Wordle and Words With Friends with his brother during their daily phone calls, a routine they kept from before his election [source, comments]

TIL that ancient Rome had a formal process called 'Apotheosis' to officially deify dead emperors, and senators could deny the honour to hated rulers. [source, comments]

TIL Charlie Day, Glenn Howerton, and Rob McElhenney, the creators of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, first met while auditioning for the film Tuck Everlasting (2002) [source, comments]

TIL That July 5th is "National Bikini Day" !!! Marking the anniversary of the day in 1946 when French designer Louis Reard unveiled the modern two-piece swimsuit in Paris. [source, comments]

TIL A US survey of 500 licensed drivers over the age of 18 found that 44 percent of them would fail a written driving test if they had to take it today [source, comments]

TIL That July 5th is "National Bikini Day" !!! Marking the anniversary of the day in 1946 when French designer Louis Reard unveiled the modern two-piece swimsuit in Paris. [source, comments]

TIL that most restrooms are free in the USA due to activism efforts in the 70s by the Committee to End Pay Toilets in America. Membership in the Committee cost $0.25, and members received a newsletter, the Free Toilet Paper. [source, comments]

TIL every new UK Prime Minister writes four secret "Letters of Last Resort" as doomsday instructions for Britain's nuclear submarines, to be opened only if the UK is destroyed. The reported options are to retaliate, not retaliate, join an ally's command(US or Australia), or let the captain decide. [source, comments]

TIL Canada has two more time zones than the US: Atlantic and Newfoundland Time Zone [source, comments]

TIL: Spielberg laughed when John Williams first played the two-note "Jaws" theme for him, thinking it was a joke. Williams replied that the simple motif matched the film's raw terror better than a more sophisticated score. It became one of the most iconic sounds in movie history. [source, comments]

TIL about Max Naumann, founder of the League of German National Jews, who from 1931 tried to get other German Jews to support Hitler and the Nazis before they banned his organization and imprisoned him in 1935. [source, comments]

TIL that in 1977, a Soviet cosmonaut went blind for several hours after blood shifted into his head in zero gravity, helping scientists discover “spaceflight-associated neuro-ocular syndrome. [source, comments]

TIL about Naziploitation films, a subgenre of exploitation film and sexploitation film that involves Nazis committing sex crimes, often as camp or prison overseers during World War II. [source, comments]

TIL the world's first webcam was created solely so people could check if a coffee pot was empty without leaving their desks. [source, comments]

Today I learned about the Mountains of Kong; an imaginary mountain range spanning the width of Africa that appeared on maps from 1798 until the late 1880’s. [source, comments]

TIL that during the filming of Star Wars in 1976, 50 years ago, Muammar Gaddafi threatened to declare war on Tunisia because he mistook the Jawa Sandcrawler prop for a military vehicle being deployed near the Libyan border. [source, comments]