› added 7 years ago

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TIL George Lucas thought Steven Spielberg's "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" would out perform Star Wars so he proposed they trade 2.5% of the profit on each other's films; Spielberg took the trade, and still receives 2.5% of the profits from Star Wars.

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8rv4 TIL Comanche Indians would torture captured settlers by cutting off their genitals, stuffing them in their mouths, sewing their lips together, then staking them over a nest of red ants until dead - Comanche women often orchestrated the torture.
ne9eo TIL not only there was a 'Rat Pack' and a 'Brat Pack' but there was also a 'Black Pack' that was founded by Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall and featured Robert Townsend, Arsenio Hall, Paul Mooney and Keenen Ivory Wayans. The only white member was Pee-Wee Herman.
yQ19e TIL after Portuguese explorers completed the first sea route to India in 1498 and disembarked in Calicut, the first people they met were two Spanish-speaking Tunisian merchants who said: "The Devil take you! What brought you here?". They responded: "We came in search of Christians and of spices".
pbae TIL Mount Everest is the only place in the world where the land ever touches the stratosphere.
NXrJQ TIL that “acclimation societies” used to intentionally introduce non-native species into new environments. House sparrows and starlings were introduced to the US this way. There are now 200 million starlings in North America, and they are listed as one of the 100 worst invasive species.