› added 12 years ago

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TIL Rep. Joe Barton (R–Texas) is against wind energy because “wind is God’s way of balancing heat,” and fears that wind turbines will slow down the wind thus heating up the earth. He also claims wind is a “finite resource.”

l7pnK TIL that New Zealand was the first country in the world, by some years, to introduce a national standard time. “NZMT” (New Zealand Mean Time) was introduced in 1868.
9Y98r TIL people who quit smoking before the age of 40 may live as long as people who never smoked at all. Researchers found a smoker loses roughly 10 years of life to the habit but regained most of that time if they quit before 40. The benefit is increased the sooner before 40 you quit.
wL6VW TIL of the Windows on the World restaurant, which occupied the 107th floor of the world trade center north tower. More than 60 languages were spoken among the staff and it's kitchen was run by celebrity chefs. In it's final year it was the highest grossing fine dining establishment in the country.
1ler TIL In 1994 the UK, USA and the Russian Federation signed the Budapest Memorandum where by Ukraine gave up the the 3rd largest nuclear arsenal in the world in exchange for security assurances from those three countries.
x64mw TIL in 2012 an 11-yr-old boy disappeared while shopping with his mom & then made his way to an airport. After he passed 5 security checks without a passport or boarding pass by tagging along with a family, he was able to board a flight from Manchester to Rome alone. He was discovered after takeoff.