› added 3 years ago

106

TIL Disney abandoned plans for a park in Virginia. Opposition groups complained it would cause suburban sprawl, create "fast food strips" and invite malls. Today the area is a suburb of million-dollar golf course homes, a mall, and a strips of fast food stores.

oBwdA TIL that auto insurance companies donate laser guns to police departments. Laser is much more difficult to defeat than radar guns, and this investment pays back the insurance company dividends because of the increased revenue raised through higher insurance premiums.
gMeRb TIL that in 1995, a Nick Leeson single handedly bankrupted Britain's oldest merchant bank by losing $1.4 B dollars in bad trades.
Egrk7 TIL Toyota has what it calls the 1:6:90 rule. Its scientists have calculated that the amount of raw material needed to make a long-range EV could instead be used to make six plug-in electric hybrid vehicles or 90 hybrid vehicles.
ya7M TIL the first Japanese person to obtain a bachelor’s degree was a 21-year-old who snuck a ride to America aboard a U.S. ship in 1864. The ship’s captain had to hide him from Japanese customs officials, as Japan still had the death penalty for anyone who traveled abroad without permission.
R7e54 TIL John A. Macdonald, from Upper Canada, and George-Etienne Cartier, from Lower-Canada, served as co-prime ministers of the Province of Canada. The Ottawa MacDonald Cartier International Airport features statues of the founders at a bench near the luggage pickup