› added 2 years ago

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TIL that the final straw for Saddam Hussein invading Kuwait was the Kuwaiti emir telling the Iraqi Foreign Minister his intention to turn "every Iraqi woman into a $10 prostitute" by ruining Iraq financially

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GAl0N TIL that the world's oldest known piece of chewing gum is over 9,000 years old.
16ePr TIL that the Portugese Man o' War (Physalia physalis) is not a single organism (like a jellyfish) but a colony of clones. The creature is made up of multiple genetically identical organism, each of which alters itself to take on a different form/function to create the individual parts of the colony
Vwn4 TIL the automaton in “Hugo” was not CGI, but an actual clockwork mechanism.
5YZP9 TIL the first car to break the 100km/h (60mph) barrier was an electric vehicle in 1899
e0rdb TIL In 1958 nuclear weapons were proposed as a tool for petroleum extraction. The plan was to detonate 100 nuclear bombs in the Alberta Oil Sands, thus adding heat and decreasing viscosity, the bitumen could then be easily pumped out. The project was put on hiatus due to risk of Soviet espionage.