Post * 8ajea — Curious Curator

› added 4 years ago

792

TIL in World War 2, countries had sold off most of their gold as well as their foreign investments, to pay for the war. By 1947, the United States had accumulated 70% of the world’s gold reserves.

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b9wdN TIL Hugh Laurie gave Lin-Manuel Miranda the idea for the song "You'll Be Back" from Hamilton after guest starring on House in 2009. Miranda mentioned to Laurie he was trying to write a breakup letter from King George to the colonies and "without blinking, he improv'd at me, 'Awwww, you'll be back'."

woDp8 TIL of 'normalcy bias', a cognitive distortion that convinces people nothing is wrong during a crisis. One author said that during a tornado warning, people 'would try to shame him into denial so they could remain calm'

8eQ1G TIL Poltergeist, which came out in 1982, was rated PG. This is despite not just the movie fitting perfectly into the horror genre, but also many adult themes including the smoking of marijuana and a deep dive into the occult.

Z8xda TIL Charles Kuentz fought for the Germans during WW1 but became a French citizen after his homeland, Alsace-Lorraine, was taken back by France after the war. When France surrendered to Germany in 1940 he became a German citizen until the fall of the Third Reich which again made him a French citizen.

neDgY TIL that Viggo Mortensen recorded six experimental ambient records with Buckethead. This one, Pandemoniumfromamerica, also features three Hobbits (Wood, Monaghan, Boyd) and a reading by Noam Chomsky.