› added 7 years ago

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TIL Elephants can be right or left-tusked the same way humans have a dominant hand. Their dominant tusk is usually more worn down.

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VMaop TIL that when "Escape from New York" was filmed in 1980's St Louis's gang zone, Kurt Russell walked to the set at night, wearing full Snake Plissken costume, including the eye patch and the machine gun. He turned a corner and ran into a street gang. They took one look at him and moved aside, scared.
RKZ6 TIL that once, according to a Yale study, applications with randomized male and female names were presented to scientists for students applying for a lab manager position. Although the applications were 100% identical the “female” applicants were rated significantly lower in competence & hireability
ApKw TIL Star Wars production assistant Ian Bryce arrived on set to find a note from the Ewok actors saying they all had quit and were on their way to fly home. After panicking, he was relieved to see the Ewok bus pull up in the lot, with all the actors wearing ‘Revenge Of The Ewok’ t-shirts.
p8GD8 TIL the founder of the Smithsonian, James Smithson, was a British scientist who willed his fortune to his nephew and in the event his nephew died with no heirs, to the US government to found an "Establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men"; having never visited the US.
ANQG4 TIL of the ancient city of Benin in Nigeria. It’s walls stretched 4x the length of the Great Wall of China. Unfortunately it was sacked by the British in the late 19th Century and there’s almost nothing left