› added 12 years ago

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TIL that the map of the world we use may not be the best representation of the world - the Peters Projection Map is area accurate

Read more petersmap.com

via reddit.com

VGdQ TIL that IKEA hired Thai translators to carefully scrutinize product names four years before opening a store in Thailand because some IKEA product names, when literally translated into Thai, suggest sexual acts.
rRPxw TIL NASA's longest serving female employee since January 1958, Sue Finley, has been an engineer and programmer for space missions since Explorer 1, for missions to the Moon, Sun, all the planets and many other solar system bodies, and recipient of NASA's Exceptional Public Service Medal.
Oo8M1 TIL that according to one legend, the funeral escort of Genghis Khan killed anyone and anything that crossed their path in order to conceal where he was finally buried. After the tomb was completed, the slaves who built it were massacred, and then the soldiers who killed them were also killed.
v1a7r TIL that Pluto was not only named after the god of the underworld, but the first two letters were a homage to Percival Lowell, the scientist who initiated the search for a celestial body beyond Neptune.
yVKnw TIL in 1996 a couple named their son "Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116" claiming it was pronounced "Albin." This was in protest to a $740 fine they'd received for failing to register a name by his fifth birthday.