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TIL that the 2005 film "Hostel" negatively affected Slovakia's and the Czech Republic's reputation. Director Eli Roth was invited on an all-expenses-paid trip to clear up the false allegations made in the film, which portrayed the countries as crime-ridden, lawless, poor, and dangerous places.

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LkNev TIL that there are flying squids. They can travel a distance of 100 feet through the air by launching themselves above the surface with a jet of water and then spreading their fins and tentacles to glide.
e0N1n TIL the original British "Peelers" (police) had to be at least 5'7, 20-27 years old, and wear their uniform even when off-duty. They couldn't vote, and needed permission to marry or even eat with a civilian.
5YZlr TIL An anthropologist created the language "Beama" for the film Alpha, about a young man separated from his tribe who befriends a wolf 20,000 years ago. She explored the research on phonetic sounds of protolanguages to determine how Beama should sound, and the director preferred more melodic-sounds
dWAj TIL between 1993-98, a majority of US Senators were trading stocks and beating the market by 12 percentage points a year on average. By comparison, corporate insiders beat the market by 5 percent, and typical households underperformed by 1.4 percent.
OG6d1 TIL Italian filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni made a documentary about China that angered the CCP so much, they carried out an anti-Antonioni campaign that included televised denouncements, nationwide written criticisms and even anti-Antonioni songs taught to schoolchildren