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1283

TIL that “Painting Elephants” are tortured to break their spirit, and then trained to move their trunks in the direction the trainer pulls the elephants’ ears.

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6y7m TIL that in 2005, despite producing only 1/50th the number of cars as Volkswagen, Porsche attempted to buy VW on the open market. It rapidly amassed 74% of the outstanding shares of its larger German counterpart before running out of money and ultimately being purchased itself by none other than VW.
d86O9 TIL that the author of Leaving Las Vegas, John O'Brien, only wrote one other thing, Rugrats' Episode 37 "Toys in the Attic". He was disgusted by the editorial changes. 2 weeks after signing the rights of the novel to be made into a movie he shot himself.
womjo TIL that barbers in the medieval times used to perform surgery and tooth extractions in addition to cutting hair, which is why barber’s poles are red, white, and blue.
d8Jmj TIL that the average workweek for a manufacturing employee in the 1890s was 100 hours. The five day, 40-hour workweek didn't become standard until 1940 thanks to the passing of the Fair Labor Standards Act, which required employers to pay overtime to anyone working more than 40 hours.
R7rB7 TIL that when Alexey Pajitnov invented Tetris in 1984, he earned no royalties for it due to living under the Soviet government. It was only in 1996, after he moved to the United States and founded The Tetris Company, that he started making money off of it.