› added 4 years ago

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TIL that both America and Australia have major store chains called Target, despite them being completely unrelated.

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4kRlg TIL: 1) The Latin word for "ants" is "formica". 2) Formic acid is produced by ants. 3) Engineers invented a plastic laminate to replace mica as an electrical insulation and named it Formica ("for mica", get it? ). 4) Despite its name, Formica is not made with formic acid. Whew!
ADQjg TIL that in 1995 on Brazilian TV there was an incident known as "the kicking of the saint" when a televangelist kicked a statue of the Virgin Mary on his show to prove its "inability to react, because it's made of clay." This sparked riots across Brazil and the televangelist fled the country.
XED8 TIL every Chili’s restaurant has one upside down picture hanging in it, and it’s a challenge to customers to find it.
wLOAP When 50,000 of Mark Rober's 3 million YouTube subscribers participated in a basic coding challenge, the data all pointed to what Rober has dubbed the Super Mario Effect. The YouTube star and former NASA engineer describes how this data-backed mindset for life gamification has stuck with him along his journey, and how it impacts the ways he helps (or tricks) his viewers into learning science, engineering, and design. Mark Rober has made a career out of engineering, entertainment, and education. After completing degrees in mechanical engineering from Brigham Young University and the University of Southern California, Rober joined NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 2004. In his nine years as a NASA engineer, seven of which were on the Mars rover Curiosity team, Rober worked on both the Descent Stage (the jetpack that lowered the Rover to the surface) and some hardware on the Rover top deck for collecting samples. In 2011, Rober’s iPad-based Halloween costume helped launch both his creative costume company, Digital Dudz, and his YouTube channel, which now boasts 3 million subscribers and 400 million views. His videos focus on creative ideas and science- and engineering-based pranks and activities. Rober is a regular guest on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!". Today, he does research and development work for a large technology company in Northern California, where he lives with his wife and son.
KYwJ6 Til a girl who survived Asiana plane crash was killed by a SFO firetruck that been dispatched to rescue survivors and extinguish flames from the burning Boeing 777.