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TIL that in 1973, film director Claude Lelouch tested his new gyro-stabilized camera by strapping it to the front of a super-charged Mercedes and then tearing through the streets of Paris, running red lights, dodging pedestrians, and reaching speeds up to 140 MPH [video in comments]

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6E4ml TIL the Elvis Presley's manager, "Colonel" Tom Parker prevented Elvis from touring outside of the US (except for 3 shows in Canada in 1957) because Parker was, among other things, an illegal alien from the Netherlands that was suspected of murder.
dDARd TIL there is a genus of plant in the pea family called Clitoria. Its name comes from its flowers, which look like human vulvas. Some species' flowers are edible and commonly used in Southeast and South Asian cuisines and traditional medicine.
w0YJ TIL that Warren Buffet is the second richest person in the US, and is worth $58 billion as of September 2013. Along with Bill Gates he is a leading philanthrocapitalist and has vowed that his children will not inherit any significant amount of his fortune.
b6M60 TIL there is a 40 acre patch of land in Maine that looks like a desert even though the area receives about 51 inches of rain and 71 inches of snow a year.
GAelj Today I learned that one of the reasons Alien has such a diverse cast was because they wrote all their characters with no backstory before casting “The crew is unisex, and all parts are interchangeable for men or women.” - Ronald Shusset