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TIL Ian Fleming named his character "Goldfinger" after the stern architect Ernő Goldfinger, whom he despised. When Ernő filed a suit over the name, Fleming threatened to rename the character "Goldprick". Ernő dropped the suit in exchange for legal fees and six copies of the book.

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eGE5 TIL that the Chinese city of Guangzhou had no subway whatsoever 20 years ago. Today, its subway system has 186 stations and is 191 miles/307 km long. It is today the world’s fourth busiest metro system, beating New York’s, London’s, Moscow’s and Paris’ in terms of ridership.
PYn9V TIL In 1942, the Nazis cracked the algorithm for the serial numbers and rag content of British Pound notes. Using prisoners with counterfeiting skills, near perfect bills were produced with the plan to scatter them over England by air to induce hyperinflation and collapse the economy.
QJle9 TIL that, in biology, any group of fish that stay together for social reasons are shoaling, and if the group is swimming in the same direction in a coordinated manner, they are schooling.
gJdX TIL Akon has been leading the charge to power tribal Africa. Gathering over $1 billion from investors to install utilities, such as 100k street lights, in 480 communities in 15 countries. That’s $75,000 per village on average. Indirectly creating 5500 jobs.
vPvj7 TIL that the country Singapore was named by a Tamil Indian king in the 11th century, and is an amalgam of the words "Singh" and "pura" meaning "Lion City"