› added 11 years ago

68

TIL the US government can legally destroy (food) wheat on farms that produce in excess in order to “stabilize the market,” even if the excess is for personal consumption only.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

X0rQk TIL Steel boats are less prone to lightning strikes than fibreglass because the metal in contact with the water reduces the electrical potential
0wAPA TIL that 41% of Australians don't know how long it takes for the Earth to orbit the sun.
LkZ4r TIL that the first character on screen in Super Mario 64 is Lakitu, Mario's camera operator. Because the 1996 game was the first in the series to have 3D gameplay, the developers needed to teach players that they were controlling both Mario AND the camera.
ANQJw TIL about Garry Hoy. A Canadian Lawyer who tried to demonstrate that skyscraper windows at his law firm were in fact unbreakable by slamming himself into a window in front of a group of students. The Window frame gave way and he fell 24 floors to his death. The glass did not break.
gjVL TIL in 2012, over 1 million residents in the Zimbabwe city of Bulawayo were asked to flush their toilets exactly at 7:30 PM on a Saturday to unblock and clear out the sewer system of the city.