› added 10 years ago

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TIL while vacationing on a beach in Thailand, a 10 year old girl recognized the signs of a tsunami after learning about them in geology class two weeks prior. Hundreds of beach-goers were evacuated minutes before the devastating tsunami from the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake arrived.

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yQm7l TIL that New Zealand bans ludicrous children’s names that would cause offence: this has protected children from being called Stallion, Yeah Detroit, Fish and Chips, Twisty Poi, Keenan Got Lucy and Sex Fruit, but did allow one to be called Number 16 Bus Shelter.
0w96A TIL that in 1973 the CEO of GM dismissed Honda's CVCC technology as only good for "little toy motorcycle engines." Soichiro Honda then bought a Chevy Impala with a 5.7L V8 and had engineers build a CVCC system for it. Flown back to the US, it passed EPA tests without a catalytic converter.
eR1k TIL Chinese is the third most-spoken language in the United States. In 1980, it was only the seventh most.
pKJb TIL Detroit once had a tourist attraction more popular than the Statue of Liberty. The Ford Rotunda was built for the 1934 World’s Fair and was the fifth most visited site in the U.S. before burning to the ground in 1962
oByX7 TIL Robert Wells 3 was murdered in a drive-by shooting. His parents posted his obituary in the local newspaper, detailing the honest details of his life and death, and not having a funeral. Instead, they asked supporters to donate to at-risk youth programs.