› added 4 years ago

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TIL Family guy ripped a video off Youtube to use in their show without asking the original creator/uploader. Fox promptly claimed the video violated their copyright and had it taken down. Only when the shows creator Seth McFarlane stepped in, the content was reinstated.

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via reddit.com

OdER TIL that due to budget issues, the Lord of the Rings trilogy was briefly planned as one film. Helm’s Deep and Saruman were cut, Rohan and Gondor merged with Éowyn as Boromir’s sister, etc. Upset by the idea of “cutting out half the good stuff,” Peter Jackson left Miramax and went to New Line Cinema.
Jk5j TIL of King Mithridates of Pontus, who ingested many different poisons in graduating amounts to become immune so that he couldn’t be poisoned by his enemies. When he was captured, he tried to commit suicide by poisoning himself but failed because he was immune.
X09mE TIL that Sichuan peppercorns aren't peppers at all. Rather, they're the dried berries of the prickly ash tree, which is a member of the citrus family.
BrP7d TIL that graffiti artist Banksy sought to trademark his image of a protester throwing flowers. The trademark office denied it on the grounds of him having no interest in selling his work. In the ruling they used a quote from one of Banksy's books: "copyright is for losers"
rNmgW TIL a population bottleneck occurred in human evolution about 70,000 years ago, and one theory for why this occurred is a supervolcano eruption in Indonesia. It caused a volcanic winter, which resulted in a drop of the global mean surface temperature by 3–5 °C.