› added 12 years ago

85

TIL that HSBC was actually founded by and for drug trafficers bringing opium into China

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via reddit.com

e0Zlg TIL that the Berlin Wall was not supposed to be torn down, but due to a mistake by the government it was torn down anyways.
LDwP TIL the Soviets had made a prototype laser pistol for use by their astronauts. The pistol was deigned to burn a hole through the spacesuits of enemy astronauts, killing them via suffocation and/or explosive decompression.
LpRp TIL some lizards, in which the tail is a major storage organ for accumulating reserves, will return to a dropped tail after the threat has passed, and will eat it to recover part of the sacrificed supplies.
wJkY TIL there’s a bar in South Africa entirely inside a 6,000 year old baobab tree, a species which naturally begins to hollow after it reaches about 1,000 years old.
W6RY TIL that US President Andrew Jackson, who now appears on the $20 bill, thought that paper money was inherently evil.