› added 10 years ago

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TIL that on September 4, 2008, the Mexican Supreme Court of Justice ruled that Wal-Mart de Mexico, the Mexican subsidiary of Wal-Mart, must cease paying its employees in part with vouchers redeemable only at Wal-Mart stores.

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8bka TIL that during 9/11, the Russian government canceled military exercises in the North Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic Oceans, in order to avoid provoking the US, which had raised it’s military alert readiness to DEFCON 3
OYjX TIL that paved roads became mainstream not because of automobiles, but because of bicycles. While cars could go across cobblestones fairly well, bicycles could not.
ZQDY TIL of “Ubasute” a Japanese word which translates to “abandoning the old woman”. As the name implies, families would carry the elderly members of their family into the forest to be left to die of dehydration/starvation. It was done during periods of hardship to take the burden off of the family.
X0XE8 TIL Most Canadian mortgages on homes are 5 years. Their amortization is 30 years. Mortgages themselves are 5 years and then you need to refinance. If rates have gone higher you are financing into higher monthly payments. Yikes!
NXAne TIL about the Soviet biologist Alexander Chizhevsky, who posited that movements of the sun caused major changes in politics and society. For example, Chizhevsky believed that the Russian revolution, along with various other upheavals and wars, was caused by solar cycles.