› added 5 years ago

130

TIL that Stephen King bought the van that hit and nearly killed him, for $1500 to prevent fans from buying it, and he announced that he was ‘going to take a sledgehammer and beat it’.

Read more mentalfloss.com

via reddit.com

9YlmM TIL it's estimated that 16% of the world's gold and 22% of the world's silver is contained in Japan's electronics alone- so much that Japan is asking its citizens to donate old electronics to make the Olympic medals.
ZOPQ TIL that John Lithgow’s childhood babysitter was Coretta Scott King (wife of Martin Luther King Jr. and a hugely accomplished activist in her own right)
JxWl TIL One of Amazon’s earliest employees brought his Corgi, Rufus, to work each day. He became such a fixture that the company named a building after him and allows employees to bring their dogs to work. Amazon has over 2,000 four legged “employees”, averaging nearly 600 per day.
awYVo TIL about the Zwentendorf Nuclear Power Plant, Austrias first power plant that was build in the 70s for nowadays 1.4 billion euros, completed, but never went into operation because it was stopped last minute by a referendum with 50.5% against it. Now it is a training station & tourist attraction.
pE9p TIL Ewa Wisnierska, a german paraglider, was sucked up by a thunderstorm cloud to an altitude of 32,631 ft. She lost consciousness due to hypoxia for 30 minutes and landed 3,5 hours later.