› added 7 years ago

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TIL 71% of firefighters are volunteers.

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via reddit.com

X09ej TIL The Popeyes restaurant chain claims it is actually named after Gene Hackman’s character, Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle, in the film “The French Connection,” which was released the year before the chain opened in 1972. The chain did later license the characters from Popeye the Sailor comics in the 2000s.
DbAJ TIL jeans when first dyed are yellow due to the yellow color of water soluble leucoindigo, which then oxidizes to the blue color of indigo on jeans.
LkOWV TIL in 2013 a Verizon programmer was found outsourcing his work to a Chinese company for less than 20% of his salary and spending his "workday" surfing the Internet. The Chinese code was so good that the programmer was regarded as the best in his department of Verizon.
loleB TIL the name “Imogen” may well be a typo. Its first recorded use is in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline. It is thought that he wrote “Innogen”, a common Celtic name at the time. The printers misread the “nn” as “m” and thus a new name was born!
5YRXn TIL that Tiger Moths can beat their wings in a way that noise cancels a hunting bat's echolocation attempts to find it.