› added 7 years ago

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TIL that the Mississippi River has been forced through New Orleans artificially by a series of floodgates. If they fail it will shift course 85 miles west and make America's largest port effectively useless overnight.

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e0pbn TIL that after its tourism sector boomed, Kazakhstan's foreign minister thanked Sacha Baron Cohen in 2012 for the release of Borat after the country saw a 10x increase in issued visas.
YwLW TIL that the prestigious Michelin Guide for restaurants is put out by Michelin the tire company and was started in 1889 (current Star system added in 1920s) to promote the travel of motorists leading to more tire sales
gZyW TIL that a London photo developer destroyed all but 11 of the only photos of the June 6th DDay on Omaha Beach. The surviving shots are called the The Magnificent Eleven and inspired the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan
bO7Z TIL that Rajiv Surendra, the rapping mathlete from Mean Girls, is now an incredibly sought-after calligrapher
1a7mW TIL of George Dantzig, who was late to class and solved two famously unsolved statistics problems because he thought they were homework.