› added 3 months ago

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TIL Tony Kaye, director of American History X, despised the final cut so much that he spent $100,000 on ads criticizing Edward Norton and the producers. He also tried to have his name replaced with "Humpty Dumpty" and sued for $200 million when refused, effectively ending his Hollywood career.

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YpPKW TIL: Virtually every country named syphilis after its enemies. The French called it the Neapolitan disease, the English and Italians called it the French disease, Russians called it the Polish disease, Tahitians called it the British disease, and the Japanese called it the Chinese pox.
pYo1Q TIL Jack Black's parents were both Rocket Scientists and worked on the Hubble Space Telescope
kOkbe TIL the runway of the Gibraltar International Airport is intersected with the main road heading towards Spain, called Winston Churchill Avenue, which has to be closed every time a plane lands or departs.
9wY7B TIL about Han Purple, a synthetic pigment used in ancient China, incl on the Terracotta Army. Use stopped in ~220 AD and it was rediscovered in 1990s. It was found that in very low temperatures and high pressure, it "loses" a dimension, acts as a 2D material, and is useful in quantum computing.
xVNDo TIL when the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre in 1911, Pablo Picasso was brought in for questioning in relation to the theft.