› added 2 years ago

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TIL of a former taxi driver turned billionaire who purchased a $170 million painting with his American Express card, earning enough reward points for a lifetime of first-class travel for his family.

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via reddit.com

eZkk TIL during WWII, the U.S. government introduced a baseball-shaped grenade designed to be easy for young American men to throw. However, design flaws led to frequent premature detonations, and the grenade was retired in 1945, having caused more casualties to American soldiers than enemy troops.
QJ0o6 TIL there is a gag gift called "liquid ass" that smells so badly the US military uses it for hyper-realistic combat training for medics to experience corpses or individuals with severe abdominal injuries
ZpyPR TIL that Nicholas Pileggi, author of the book which was made into the movie Goodfellas, was also responsible for the movie Casino. Bonus fact - Pileggi originally intended to write another book that would lead to a film adaptation, but he was convinced by Martin Scorcese to do the opposite.
rNKl0 TIL that some employers use surveillance tools originally developed for Pentagon and CIA to track staff behavior, emotions, fatigue, and productivity.
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.