› added 11 years ago

105

TIL the government in Azerbaijan decided to spend close to 1 billion dollars on a song contest instead of giving their citizens clean water.

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QJAXX TIL that for decades, anatomists and zoologists were confounded by the origin of whales. Then, at the end of the 20th century, a wealth of fossil finds provided a detailed outline of how hoofed land mammals became the sea’s largest swimmers.
mAJP TIL that Dr. Seuss’s wife thought the Cat in the Hat movie was so bad that she forbid any more live action films of his books.
Zp7Vp TIL that long before the I phone, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs Earned money by making and selling "blue boxes:" electronic devices that allowed people (phreakers) to make long distance calls without being charged for them by AT&T.
OoyQR TIL that William McAdoo's decision to close the NYSE for 4 months in 1914 to prevent Europeans from selling American securities and exchanging proceeds for USD, and then gold, led to a decisive shift in the global balance of economic power, from Europe to the USA
ADmRx TIL about four museums that focus solely on cats: one in Malaysia; one in the Netherlands, one in Lithuania, and one in the US. There's also a museum in the US dedicated to Maneki Neko (Lucky Cat) statues.