› added 6 years ago

2017

TIL there was concern that red headed people with blue eyes were going extinct because only around 17% of people have blue eyes, and 1-2% have red hair -- the odds of having both traits is around 0.17%.

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Ypy7G TIL International space station has the internet speed of 600MB per second
kObQW TIL film critic Roger Ebert started his journalism career as a kid with a stamp collecting newsletter called "Ebert's Stamp News". He was able to get 6 subscribes, and actually mailed the newsletter to them.
P18vZ TIL that in the late 1920s, Henry Ford tried to build a town called Fordlandia in the Brazilian jungle for the purpose of supplying tire rubber. Designed to be inhabited by 10,000 people, the project totally failed from poor management, disease, worker unrest, and other factors.
J5MV TIL of the ‘American Hippo Bill’, a bill from 1910 to import and release hippos into the bayous of Louisiana so that they could eat the water hyacinth clogging the rivers and serve as food help solve the American meat crisis. It was almost passed.
GMM7 TIL avocados contain more fat than any other fruit or vegetable. Also, the trees contain enzymes that prevent the fruit from ever ripening on the tree, allowing farmers to use the trees as storage devices for up to 7 months after they reach full maturity, allowing avocados to always be in season.