› added 10 years ago

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TIL Google created a free service that you could call for telephone directory searches. The catch? Its sole purpose was to collect voice samples and was shut down once enough were collected

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via reddit.com

wZNY TIL that wearing a white t-shirt with a large letter “T” on the front is scientifically proven to make you 10% more attractive to women
GYVNE TIL that the city of Erbil in Iraq has a 'bulge' in the middle that has formed over the course of 6000 years as new buildings have been built over the remains of old ones
ByQK TIL that diamonds aren’t all that rare and were manufactured into a romantic symbol by a company called Debeers in the early 1900’s. They own most of the diamond mines in the world and create their own supply and demand.
M7rN8 TIL The Spanish Empire developed a long term plan to conquer China in the 16th century, a crucial part of the plan was to encourage mixed marriages between natives and settlers to turn China Hispanic and so easier to rule over.
oR5OR TIL of the Circumhorizon Arc, aka fire rainbow. This horizontal "rainbow" of colour occurs when the sun or moon is over 50 degrees above the horizon and an arc of light passes thru a very specific kind of cloud (Cirrus clouds made up of ice crystals parallel to the ground), at just the right angle.