› added 6 years ago

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TIL that Michelin goes to huge lengths to keep the Inspectors (who give out stars to restaurants) anonymous. Many of the top people have never met an inspector; inspectors themselves are advised not to tell what they do. They have even refused to allow its inspectors to speak to journalists.

b9aa0 TIL that a dog named Pickles helped recover the stolen Jules Rimet Trophy while on a walk with his owner, four months prior to the 1966 FIFA World Cup. He was eventually invited to the celebrations when England won the tourney.
M7KYA TIL the Big Box store concept was pioneered by the Rhode Island based Ann & Hope retailer. The Kmart and Walmart founders, among others, borrowed features for their own stores.
m1NNp TIL Donald Mastick accidentally tasted Plutonium and was banned from lab work. Despite this, he earned a physics PhD, started a highly successful interior landscape company, raised a family, and died of natural causes, all with few micrograms of Plutonium in his body.
nYA9 TIL that Michel Siffre, a French scientist, contributed to the understanding of the endogenous biological clock, also called circadian clock, by staying two months cloistered in the abyss of Scarasson without time cues on a glacier from July 1962.
p8K4 TIL US Congressmen and Congresswomen earn $174,000 to $223,500 a year, have a guaranteed cost-of-living-adjustment, can trade stocks based on the information they get from public office, have great healthcare, and set their own salaries.