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TIL: Edward Bernays, in an effort to market bananas to the United States, ended up toppling the Guatemalan government and starting a 30 year civil war

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R5gDw TIL Tolkien wanted to create what we would nowadays call a transmedia multiverse. "I would draw some of the great tales in fullness, and leave many only placed in the scheme. The cycles should be linked and yet leave scope for other minds and hands, wielding paint and music and drama. Absurd."
PJZO TIL Shell sold “No Pest Strips” that were highly carcinogenic, even causing one death. They eventually pulled it off the U.S. market and sold it in Mexico so they could still make money. Shell executive: “Speaking as a human being, sure you feel bad. But I’m not being paid to be a human being.”
XExlr TIL: Harry Kakavas lost $1.5 billion in a 14 month gambling spree that led to a pivotal landmark Australian High Court case as he claimed the casino lured him using a private jet and other incentives. He lost and the court ruled that casinos aren't obligated to protect gamblers from themselves.
kJAVW TIL about Phantasmagoria, a French pre-cinema horror shadow show where audiences were entertained with ghost tales, demon myths, and other stories to scare them by using shadows projected on a wall, mood lighting, and auto-suggestive narration.
R7AN1 TIL that General Douglas MacArthur's father was a colonel in the American Civil War. So when MacArthur considered using Nukes during the Korean War, the son of a Civil War officer was wielding a nuclear arsenal.