› added 5 years ago

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TIL scientists discovered a perfectly preserved feathered dinosaur tail in a polished piece of Amber, after the jewellery seller initially thought it was just "plant material"

Wjj4 TIL that before 1934, film in Hollywood used to be extraordinarily liberal during a period called “Pre-Code”. Before laws about decency were passed, films in that era would give today’s rated-R movies a run for their money, featuring nudity, homosexuality, drug use, intense violence and more.
0wP8L TIL that one of the things the Mafia can trace it's origins to is the citrus trade in the mid 1800's. The extortion, intimidation, and protection rackets that characterize Mafia activity were first practiced and perfected in the citrus gardens of Palermo, Italy.
N19M TIL that Puyi, the last Emperor of China, spent his last years as a commoner in Beijing under the communist regime. On his first day of work as a street sweeper, he was lost and told passersby, “I’m Puyi, the last Emperor of the Qing dynasty. I’m staying with relatives and can’t find my way home.”
nwOd TIL a radio station offered six figures to anyone that would get a tattoo of the station’s logo onto their forehead. A man and his stepson did so and upon requesting the money they were told they “weren’t entitled to anything.”
kmyg TIL the original voice for Siri was a woman named Susan Bennett. She was paid hourly to record nonsense phrases for a third party company, and only later learned that she had provided Apple with “all of the sounds of the English language”, which they could then formed into any response.