› added 2 years ago

824

TIL that when Nicolas Cage proposed to Patricia Arquette, she told him to get odd objects to prove his affection. They were J.D. Salinger's autograph, a Bob's Big Boy statue, a black orchid, and a Hill Tribe wedding outfit. Despite the list being intended to be impossible, he found them.

nePkW TIL of Mandeville's 1714 story of a thriving bee community that decides to live by virtue instead of self-interest - and collapses. Adam Smith incorporated this idea of 'private vice, public good' into his work, and today its a foundational principle of Capitalism and Western Civilisation.
R7yQw TIL Sarah Forbes Bonetta was a Yoruba princess from West Africa who was orphaned and enslavved at age 5 by nearby Dahomey invaders who intended to kill her in a human sacrifice. She became Queen Victoria's goddaughter after a British Royal Navy captain convinced Dahomey's King to spare her life
PBdE TIL that the American dream costs $130k a year if you live in an affordable area with one car payment.
X0el6 TIL one man, Lawrence Pazder, can be attributed to starting the Satanic Panic of the 1980s, with a book “Michelle Remembers”, about his patient and future wife, Michelle Proby. The entirety of Proby’s “satanic” abuse has been discredited.
oR5dA TIL About a turbine bearing at Holtwood Hydroelectric Power Plant in Pennsylvania that has been running maintenance free for over 100 years and rated to continue operating for more than 1300 years without maintenance. Amazing thing is that it was Albert Kingsbury's first practical application.