› added 11 years ago

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TIL China is building a car-free city from scratch for 80,000 residents - it “will use 48% less energy and 58% less water than a more conventional city of the same size; it will also produce 89% less landfill waste and generate 60% less carbon dioxide.”

KWM6 TIL that during Wagner’s lifetime, there was a widespread misconception that Wagner did not like applause at his operas. Frustrated by the lack of applause, Wagner himself cried “Bravo!” at the end of the second act of one of his operas, only to be hissed by other members of the audience.
DQKvV TIL that the Inughuit (aka Polar Eskimos) lived in such extreme isolation prior to being contacted by Europeans in 1818 that they were unaware of the existence of other humans, including other Inuits. Due to their isolation they had lost various technologies such as boats and bow and arrows.
erL4 TIL most color laser printers sold today create an invisible code that records where and when a page was printed.
NXdQP TIL the Kimberly Process, by which diamonds are certified as "conflict-free", has been largely abandoned as ineffective. Due to corruption and smuggling it is essentially impossible to tell if a gem is a blood diamond or not.
p1a4 TIL that by 1937, Experts ‘no longer used the term “genius” as an IQ classification…In 1939, David Wechsler specifically commented that “we are rather hesitant about calling a person a genius on the basis of a single intelligence test score”.’