› added 5 years ago

252

TIL that seemingly pointless zigzags on the roads in the Western US are there to compensate the road grid for the curvature of Earth.

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6ADY TIL that at it’s height the First Persian Empire contained about 44% of the world’s population (about 50 million people), making it the largest empire in history by population percentage
46j6 TIL in 1995 Michael Jordan ruined Muggsy Bogues’ career with one line of trash talk.
4kPDR TIL that the Princess Taiping would have been the first traditional Chinese junk to sail to America and back—if it didn't get rammed by a Norwegian tanker with 30 miles left
MeROB TIL the 1994 film "Clerks" had an extended, but a much darker ending, in which Dante Hicks was murdered by a robber who then proceeded to take the money from the cash register. Miramax reacted negatively and ordered writer-director Kevin Smith to delete that ending completely.
XYEE TIL the largest Chinese community in Europe is found in the Tuscan city of Prato. Prato’s Chinese community consists of an estimated 20,000 legal and 30,000 illegal migrants, many working in sweatshops that provide affordable “Made in Italy” textiles for China’s emerging middle class.