› added 5 years ago

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TIL after an Iranian government contract for a British company was cancelled and given to Siemens instead, a British embassy investigation revealed that it was because Siemens' Iranian sales agent allowed the Shah to sleep with his wife in exchange for the contract.

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1gBd TIL Teddy Roosevelt, when made Police Commissioner of New York City, inherited a vastly corrupt police force. In order to make sure officers weren’t slacking off or performing corrupt activities, he himself would walk their beats most nights and early mornings.
D11ov TIL there is a theory that homosexuality might be caused by the mother's immune system---which may mistake male-specific proteins on the Y chromosome as pathogens and "attack" them, leading to developmental quirks
wWr1 TIL a biker got a flat tire in the motorway, a man in a van stopped to help him and decided to carry the bike in the van. Minutes after departing the man suffered a stroke while driving, the biker then performed CPR following 112 instructions whilst waiting for the ambulance and saved the man’s life
ynQl TIL that approximately four million tracks on Spotify (about 20% in total) have never been played even once.
xVxRD TIL that in the 1830s the Swedish Navy planted 300 000 oak trees to be used for ship production in the far future. When they received word that the trees were fully grown in 1975 they had little use of them as modern warships are built with metal.