› added 5 years ago

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TIL that Spanish conquistadors in America didn't realize the true value and rarity of platinum and only cared about gold, but counterfeiters would use platinum to make fake gold and silver, so the Spaniards would dump any confiscated platinum into the sea to try and combat this forging problem

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5YwZk TIL of king penguin, Lala who was injured and nursed back to health in Japan. He didn't leave so the family adopted him and lived in a air-conditioned room. He walked around the neighborhood and got himself fishes from the store. He lived with the family for 10 years before dying of old age in 1996.
wo54Y TIL that before 1985, Zombies weren't known for eating brains. Their penchant for head biting was first coined in the cult horror classic Return of the Living Dead.
xDND TIL: While UK athletes receive no bonuses from their country for winning Olympic medals German athletes receive a lifetime supply of beer and Belarussians get unlimited sausages.
K5YQ TIL that the Space Race of the 1960’s lead to NASA giving IBM a $26.6 million contract to create an one of the most powerful computers ever in a compact form. This lead to the development of the microprocessor and the level of power computers have today.
rNYa4 TIL A dead body left on Mars would dry out and mummify better than Egyptian mummies. The first few stages — algor mortis (body cools), livor mortis (blood pools), and rigor mortis (muscles stiffen) — would still take place. But there would be no other overt signs of decomposition.