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TIL General Motors purposely kept the 1979 Chevy Malibu gas tank dangerously close to the rear of the vehicle. Instead of paying an extra $8.59 per vehicle to move the gas tank to a safer location, GM estimated that they would only have to pay $2.40 per vehicle to pay off personal-injury lawsuits.

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Lk15P TIL that in the late 1700s and 1800s, there was widespread panic about the evils of book-reading, which was described as “an outrage on decency and common sense”. People were concerned that avid novel-readers were ‘addicted’ and were becoming anti-social.
p8mj8 TIL In 2012, a tourist in Iceland left her group to change her clothes. When she returned to the group, they did not recognise her. The group began searching for a missing person. She joined the search party for herself.
bdbj TIL a think tank at Oxford University believes that the prison industry may begin exploring psychoactive drugs that elongate the perception of time, either reducing actual incarceration times or making sentences for heinous crimes feel like an eternity.
wobv8 TIL the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con sold an "invisible jet" (one of Wonder Woman's vehicles); Mattel intended it as a joke, and the package was just an empty plastic bubble, but the "toy" ended up being a big hit at the con
x6Qjo TIL in Western Europe in the 19th century, women swimmers were encouraged to wear a bathing gown made of wool, with weights sewn into the hems so that they would not rise up in the water. Such measures to protect "modesty" were common in the era when women began competing in modern Olympic swimming