› added 11 years ago

231

TIL that in the early 1900s oyster fishermen in Narragansett Bay tried to eliminate starfish that were preying on their oysters. Whenever they encountered starfish, they chopped them up with their knives and threw them back into the water. As a result, the sea star population increased explosively.

YgYP TIL that Niue, a small Polynesian island country in the southwest pacific, is the world’s first “WiFi Nation”, with free wireless internet access available throughout the entire country.
mJgP TIL after French soldier Jean Bernadotte showed kindness to a few Swedish soldiers, he became so popular in Sweden that the Swedes decided to make him their king when a vacancy came up, despite him never having set foot in Sweden before. The House of Bernadotte rules Sweden to this day.
OoJA6 TIL in 1960, an Australian father won nearly $3 million (adjusted AU$) in the lottery, with his picture getting plastered all over the news. Shortly after, his 8-year-old son was kidnapped for ransom and eventually murdered. This changed anonymity laws for lottery winners in Australia forever.
OoLNa TIL in the 1930s a DuPont chemist found that crystals of a substance called PTC (phenylthiocarbamide) tasted very bitter to some but were tasteless to others (about 75% taste bitterness). Researchers found three variants in a gene called TAS2R38. Two copies of this variant make you non-taster.
7rZDL TIL basketball legend Shaquille O'Neal owns 155 Five Guys franchises, nearly 10% of all the Five Guys in existence.