› added 4 years ago

64

TIL of Mike, a cat who guarded the gates of the British Museum. He spent 20 years on the job, gaining notoriety for his disliking of females and dogs, and only allowing certain people to feed him. Even after retiring he occasionally chased off dogs, who reportedly "fled in terror" when he attacked.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

P1M1w TIL that Japanese mythology describes cats as nasty, evil creatures. Old gray and red or orange cats with long tails are the evilest variety, followed by tricolored ones.
AgMw TIL in 1882, a house, 5 ft wide, 4 stories high and 104 ft deep was erected on Lexington Ave, NYC to “spite” the neighbor, and block his views. It was known as “Spite House”.
YpXEx TIL: John Williams lost the 1977 Original Score Oscar for Close Encounters to himself, for Star Wars
1aYnD TIL that when the 1982 Tylenol murders occured, Johnson & Johnson recalled 31 million bottles of Tylenol capsules despite it being their bestselling product and accounted for 17% of J&J's profits. However, the move was a huge PR success and is now studied as an exemplary case of crisis management.
KvkJ TIL of MASSIVE, a software package used to generate thousands of actors with their own artificial intelligence. It was used to generate the battle scenes in the Lord of the Rings films.