› added 12 years ago

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TIL that in 1981 President Reagan claimed in complete seriousness that “trees cause more pollution than automobiles do.”

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opxo TIL that Blue Whales can expend upto 1900 calories to take a single bite, and if its prey is densely packed enough it could take in about 2 million calories.
yVOgv TIL That Matt Bissonnette, the former DEVGRU operator who, under the pseudonym Mark Owen, wrote the first book about the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden was forced to turn over the almost $7 million he made from the book because he failed to get the book approved before it was published.
v18gj TIL of the story of Herostratus, who deliberately caused a fire that destroyed the temple of Artemis at Ephesus. He explained that he had wanted to gain immortal fame by his act. However, he was put to death and a damnatio memoriae passed. His name now refers to those who do crimes to become famous.
4kenN TIL the current head of the Tokugawa samurai family, which ruled Japan for over 250 years as an isolationist shogunate, grew up in the US and married a Vietnamese woman
7K4r TIL vanilla beans are the 2nd most expensive spice in the world due to a current, global vanilla bean crisis caused, in part, by a 2017 hurricane in Madagascar.