› added 11 years ago

137

TIL Germany has a “Codetermination” law that balances the interests of workers and capitalists by allowing workers to elect half the board directors in any corporation larger than 2000 people. In corporations between 500 and 2000 people, the workers can elect 1/3 of the board of directors.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

0wvl1 TIL when you turn 100 years old in the UK, the Queen sends you a personalized telegram.
W15d TIL If you pay a loan on a bi-weekly frequency of half the monthly amount ($250 twice a month instead of $500 once a month) you will pay off the loan faster and incur less interest over time.
R799w TIL that H1N1, the influenza strain that caused the 1918 flu pandemic, survived another 40+ years as a seasonal flu bug. It was finally “extinguished” by another flu virus, H2N2, in the 1957 flu pandemic. Even so, a “new” H1N1 emerged 50 years later to cause the 2009 “swine flu” pandemic.
mxEAP TIL that in 1704, George Psalmanazar, who claimed to be from Taiwan, published a book in Britain about Taiwanese customs. As nothing was known about Taiwan in Europe at the time, his claims (such as that if a Taiwanese woman cheated on her husband, he could legally eat her) were widely believed.
ndZY TIL a madman in San Francisco declared himself, “Emperor of America and Protector of Mexico.” The people were such good sports about it that they honored his regal decrees and the currency he created was widely accepted around the city. 30,000 attended his funeral