› added 12 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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mxQQM TIL Al Goldstein an American pornographer, In 1989, ran a full page ad in "Screw" offering $1 million for the assassination of the Ayatollah Khomeini, in response to Khomeini's fatwa against novelist Salman Rushdie for allegedly blaspheming Islam.
xJk1 TIL a 2012 study found that uninformed people are influenced more by subjective reporting: “If you want to reach a bigger audience — those less-informed — you need to inject as much opinion into your work as possible”
kloB TIL human rights groups intend to deliver copies of “The Interview” to North Korea via air balloon. Previous “air balloon” campaigns have included dropping USB drives containing biographies of Gandhi and MLK Jr. in Korean.
BYyx TIL Nicolas Cage had magic mushrooms with his cat, Lewis. Seeing Lewis eating the shrooms, Cage responded, “What the heck, I better do it with him.” Cage recalls laying in bed for hours and staring at Lewis, as Lewis stared back. Cage concluded sagely, “and I had no doubt that he was my brother.”
e0lk TIL Google search results can be limited to a specific reading level. Really useful for finding grade school materials or scientific journals.