› added 7 years ago

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TIL that Stephen King originally tossed his manuscript for “Carrie” while living in a trailer home with his wife, claiming it was a “loser”. His wife, Tabitha, upon finding it in the garbage and reading it, convinced him to finish it and send it in. It’s the novel that made him famous.

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via reddit.com

v1PDj TIL the 2016 Indian banknote demonetisation, the biggest economic policy of its kind in recent history, which scrapped 500 and 1000 Rupee notes overnight to curtail corruption and illicit cash, failed to achieve its stated goals and let to a dip in GDP.
V6M0 TIL, In 2010 General Electric brought in $14,000,000,000 in profit world wide, with over $5,000,000,000 in profit brought from the United States alone, and paid no taxes.
kJPA7 TIL that squirt guns predate the Civil War. Would be General Sherman once said “Why, you might as well attempt to put out the flames of a burning building with a squirt-gun.”
rVdw TIL the French flag has uneven proportions in naval use. The blue, white, and red sections are 30%, 33%, and 37%, respectively, to counteract the illusion of size mismatch created when the flag is flapping (flapping makes the section opposite the halyard, the red section in this case, seem smaller)
8KOX TIL that human poop and farts get their foul smell from the chemical compounds Skatole and Indole (among others). At low concentrations, these compounds smell flowery, and are used in perfumes. USA and Israel have used Skatole in crowd control sprays—the stench does not wash off skin for 3 days.