› added 11 years ago

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TIL that Shell abandoned an oil well in Niger in 1977. By 2004, an estimated 20,000 barrels had leaked, polluting groundwater and ruining cropland. Clean up will cost $1bn.

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OGxO4 TIL: Rachel Wall was the last woman to be hanged in MA in the 1700s. She tricked sailors by screaming for help, when people came to help, her crew would kill them and steal their goods. She was later arrested for trying to rip a girl's tongue out and theft. She requested to be tried as a pirate.
J7LV TIL In captivity, a killer whale is usually confined to a small pool, where it spends much time at the surface and often has to swim in a circle. Consequently, the tissue in its dorsal fin doesn’t get much of a workout, and starts to atrophy (wastes away due to lack of use), and it falls over.
yARl TIL when Eddie Murphy was on SNL in the early 80s, other cast members often had to go downstairs after shows to catch a cab for him because no cab drivers would stop for a young black man late at night.
4MLb TIL that in 2012, the advertising campaign for a UK energy drink called “Pussy” was banned as sexually explicit and offensive. Pussy energy drink ad slogan was: “The drink’s pure, it’s your mind that’s the problem.”
yygp TIL That the federal government takes a percentage (as high as 47% in recent years) of every raisin farmer’s crops… every year… without paying for them. This is due to an arcane law still on the books from WWII reconstruction.