"TIL Danny Trejo has a clause in his movie contracts that requires his villainous characters to die by the end of the film. He wants children to learn that crime doesn't pay."
"TIL about skeuomorphism, when modern objects, real or digital, retain features of previous designs even when they aren't functional. Examples include the very tiny handle on maple syrup bottles, faux buckles on shoes, the floppy disk 'save' icon, or the sound of a shutter on a cell phone camera."
"TIL George Washington decided to step down after two terms because he feared he might die in office and Americans would then view the presidency as a lifetime appointment"
"TIL Charles Darwin created the office chair, he put wheels on the bottom of his chair so he could roll between specimens."
"TIL: The "Simple Sabotage Field Manual" was declassified in 2008 and it contains advice on how spies can sabotage the enemy by just being maliciously incompetent. Advice include praising inefficient coworkers, cry and sob frequently at work, asking inane questions in meetings, and spreading gossip."
"TIL in 2010 a doctor and his son just happened to be walking by an apartment building in Paris when a 15-month-old boy fell 80ft (24m) from a seventh floor balcony before bouncing off a cafe awning into the doctor's arms. His catch helped the boy escape "miraculously without a single scratch.""
"TIL that Great White Sharks across the Pacific Ocean consistently congregate at one specific spot in the Pacific Ocean. Scientists call this the White Shark Cafe."
"TIL that Weird Al's Phantom Menace parody 'The Saga Begins' was recorded a month before the film released in May 1999. Yankovic was denied an early screening by Lucasfilm, but managed to almost exactly piece together the plot by researching rumours posted on Star Wars fan forums."
"TIL that Elton John never performed the Princess Diana version of Candle in the Wind again after her funeral in 1997, despite receiving numerous requests."
"TIL South Park aired an episode titled “Band in China”… which resulted in them being banned in China."
"TIL huge rogue waves were dismissed as a scientifically implausible sailors' myth by scientists until one 84ft wave hit an oil platform. The phenomenon has since been proven mathematically and simulated in a lab, also proving the existence of rogue holes in the ocean."
"TIL Siblings can get completely different results (e.g., one 30% Irish and another 50% Irish) from DNA ancestry tests, even though they share the same parents, due to genetic recombination."
"TIL life didn't give us lemons, they are not naturally occurring. They are a hybrid fruit from selective breeding of the citron and the bitter orange"
"TIL Tasmanian Devil's give birth to between 30 and 40 offsprings but the mother only has four teats. The first four to attach to teats survive, the others perish."
"TIL the term 'jaywalking' was promoted and popularized by the automobile industry to blame pedestrians for traffic issues."
"TIL in 2013 a woman went to pick up a friend in Brussels (less than 90 miles from her home), however because of a GPS error, she ended up in Croatia after driving 900 miles across five international borders. She realized she took a wrong turn two days after leaving. Her son had reported her missing."
"TIL - the family that couldn't sleep, a family in Venice, Italy where for over 200 years many of the family members died suffering from fatal insomnia."
"TIL Mihailo Tolotos was a Greek Orthodox monk that died without ever seeing a woman. He lived all his 82 years of life in Mount Athos monastery"
"TIL In 1941, prior to widespread fluoridation of drinking water, almost 10% of US military recruits were rejected because they didn’t have 6 opposing teeth in their upper and lower jaws"
"TIL that after George Harrison's death from lung cancer, his widow sued a doctor at the hospital where he received radiation therapy for allegedly forcing Harrison to listen to his son play guitar and autograph the guitar while lacking his mental faculties."
As a former resident of one of those 10 states, I agree with you.
No sh#t, it even says it on the drum. And look at those uniforms!