› added 10 years ago

196

TIL that ancient sloth could be as large as an elephant

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via reddit.com

A4QB TIL - When Blackbeard captured the ship that would become Queen Anne’s Revenge, there 455 African slaves on board. Many of the African slaves would go on to become pirates rather than continue to be slaves. At the time of Blackbeard’s death, nearly one-third of his total crew were former slaves.
dXQj TIL that there is a “Vegas/Dubai-styled” free trade zone on an island paradise in Iran. Anyone is welcomed to do business/visit there and it gets a million tourists a year.
xxLw TIL the term mothership is from the whaling trade when small, fast ships were used to chase and kill whales. The dead meat from several boats was then brought back to the larger, slower ship for processing and storage until the return to land.
R5Qej TIL that McDonald's generates income through owning about 70% of its restaurant buildings and 45% of the underlying land which it leases to its franchisees
9YBYp TIL in 2017 the 2nd generation Vauxhall Tigra was the car most likely to fail its inspection - over 58% of them ended up failing.