› added 3 weeks ago

8

TIL about the Texas two-step bankruptcy, which is when a parent company spins off liabilities into a new company. The new company then declares bankruptcy to avoid litigation. An example of this is when Johnson & Johnson transferred liability for selling talc powder with asbestos to a new company.

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d8POE TIL that in 2008 a team of medical scientists built a "bioartifical heart", where they took a cell-less heart framework and reseeded it with cells. By the eighth day, the structure was able to beat and pump like a natural heart.
wvD7 TIL that a nudity war began on Brazilian TV in 1990. A network won top ratings with a prime-time soap opera with full frontal nudity; another fought back with uncut nudity in films. A third television network instead aired high-quality literary adaptations, and had the worst ratings in its history.
loL41 TIL Fieldfare birds defend their young from ravens and other predators, by "dive-bombing" the predators with their poop. The poop glues the raven's feathers together.
KO1ww TIL a painting worth over a $100 million, and one of the most iconic paintings of mankind's history was painted by Vincent Van Gogh while he was admitted and kept in a mental asylum. The painting depicts the view he saw from the Iron barred window in his bedroom.
wZxY TIL that 12 African nations have come together pledging to build a 9 mile wide band of trees that will stretch all the way across Africa, 4750 miles, in order to stop the progressive advancement of the Sahara.