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TIL Terry Crews said the reason Fox didn't promote idiocracy was because Mike Judge had companies pay for product placement and then he made them look bad (Starbucks gave out hand-jobs). The film tanked in limited release but made over 20 times its gross domestic box office revenue in DVD rentals.

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Eg4Qw TIL: The term "Tory" comes from the Middle Irish word "tóraí," which means "outlaw" or "robber." The name "Tory" was originally intended to be an insult, but it was eventually embraced by the party and its members.
8mRa TIL: In an effort to fight oil well fires, Hungarian engineers recycled a Russian T-34 tank, and replaced the gun turret with two Mig-21 jet engines. The team would inject water into the exhaust of the engines and literally blow an oil well fire out. They called the device Big Wind.
LaPZ TIL that while preparing for his role as Rust Cohle in ‘True Detective,’ Matthew McConaughey wrote a 450-page deconstruction of his character’s life. It detailed the character at 4 pivotal points in his life and explored the mind of a “deep, wild-ass narco.”
WQv8 TIL that in 1999, US forces bombed a Chinese embassy, killing 3 ambassadors and injuring 20. The incident was blamed on outdated maps. China never accepted the US explanation, and it was later revealed that the CIA actually had accurate maps.
WkMNA TIL of Norman Borlaug, a scientist who developed and promoted higher-yield wheat, started the Green Revolution, and may have saved over a billion lives through better agriculture.