› added 11 years ago

196

TIL that if the entire world consumed the amount of resources that the U.S.A does, we would need 3.5 earths to sustain ourselves.

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GYkXG TIL the very first US episode of Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares featured a restaurant owned by an actual mobster connected to the Bonanno crime family
P1Q0E TIL in 2010 The Coca-Cola Company launched an advertising campaign where Facebook users, even minors, would allow them to post embarrassing things onto their feeds for a chance at $1000. They came under fire because "I watched '2 Girls 1 Cup' and felt hungry afterwards" was a possible phrase.
Z8aAQ TIL of US Army nurse Ruby Bradley. Captured during WWII, she was nicknamed the "Angel in Fatigues", delivering 13 babies and smuggling food to help starving children. During the Korean War, she refused to leave her hospital until everyone has left, despite surrounded by 100,000 enemy soldiers.
rRVPd TIL of the Beijing Weather Modification Office, used by the government to control the weather on demand. Examples include creating real snowfall for New Years Day and moving clouds away from the Olympic Stadium to prevent rain by firing chemicals into the sky.
gr7wA TIL Benjamin Franklin was fond of dating older women, (in)famously writing 8 reasons why they were better than their younger counterparts. Among them, he stated that they naturally provided birth control, were discrete, and could not be distinguished from younger women from the girdle downwards.