› added 5 years ago

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TIL about 40% of all Vietnamese people have the surname Nguyễn. It is also the 7th most popular surname in Australia, and 2nd in Melbourne in particular.

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via reddit.com

Br8Jb TIL that the owner of a brand name can lost their legal protection for it if people started using it as the common or generic name for a type of product or service. This is what happened to Cellophane, Escalator, Flip Phone, Frisbee, Hovercraft, Kerosene, Sellotape, Trampoline, and Videotape.
0gpy TIL Vice investigated how easy it is to acquire nuclear weapons on the black market, and got as far as an exchange for acquiring a nuclear “Dirty bomb”
V0Gk TIL Norway has world’s highest gas prices. Though they have oil reserves, they don’t subsidize fuel and use the $ for free college education and national infrastructure
GbaQ TIL that astronauts are not allowed to take bread into space. This is due to astronaut John Young smuggling a corned beef sandwich on Gemini III. The sandwich crumbled apart and launched crumbs in all directions, creating a potential safety/equipment hazard.
D15Pj TIL that New York City is one of four major cities in the United States whose drinking water is pure enough not to require purification by water treatment plants. The city is supplied with drinking water by the protected Catskill Mountains watershed.