› added 2 years ago

80

TIL Canada once had a ‘Exotic Dancer Visa Program’ where foreign women can enter the country to strip. Human traffickers took advantage of this..

GoA1 TIL that in 1976, a Soviet pilot defected to Japan in his advanced MiG-25 fighter, which Russia demanded be returned. Japan complied, but only after allowing American engineers to examine the aircraft. Japan then shipped it back piece by piece, and billed Russia $40,000 in transport and labor costs.
VMnn0 TIL The difference between "Jr." and "II" is that "Jr." JR is to be used when the child is going to have the same name as his father, whereas "II" should be used when the child would be taking the name of a family member other than his father.
exZ5 TIL that when Martin Scorsese read the book Wiseguy, which he would eventually adapt into the classic mob film Goodfellas, he called author Nicholas Pileggi and said, “I’ve been waiting for this book my entire life” to which Pileggi replied “I’ve been waiting for this phone call my entire life.”
epkoJ TIL fine particles of dust can explode and rapidly combust, even innocuous objects like flour or corn starch, due to the very large surface area of dust relative to its mass. One incident at a "color party" throwing colored corn starch resulted in 15 dead and 498 suffering from burns.
9YGpD TIL Play-Doh started out as a wallpaper cleaner before the head of the struggling company realized the non-toxic material made a good modelling clay for children and rebranded it.