› added 1 month ago

8

TIL that Osamu Tezuka was invited to work on 2001: A Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick, a fan of Astro Boy. Tezuka, despite his interest, had to say no, because he could not afford to move to England for a year.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

krYm TIL a death row inmate who avoided the electric chair accidentally electrocuted himself on a toilet
XEWQX TIL the smallest skeletal muscle in the human body is the Stapedius muscle, which is about one millimeter (0.04 inch) in length. Its purpose is, amazingly enough, to "stabilize the smallest bone in the body, the stapes or strirrup bone of the middle ear."
WkjNN TIL: New York City has a GDP per capita just over $100k. 4 out of the 5 boroughs have a GDP per capita between $30k-42k. This $100k average is skewed by Manhattan, which has a GDP per capita of $386,500.
moGx TIL The “Scotch” in Scotch Tape was originally a racist insult meaning ‘stingy.’ Early efforts at creating the product used too little adhesive, causing one frustrated worker to demand they “take this tape back to those Scotch bosses of yours and tell them to put more adhesive on it.”
woLeP TIL rock star Billy Joel is half-brother to European conductor Alexander Joel. Their shared father's journey from Germany to the US and back to Europe includes a sad tale of a successful business essentially stolen by the Nazis.