› added 10 years ago

129

TIL that two companies represent 35 percent of South Korea’s GDP: Samsung (23%) and Hyundai (12%)

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via reddit.com

WRw4 TIL After Pope Gregory IX associated cats with devil worship, cats throughout Europe were exterminated in droves. This sudden lack of cats led to an increase in rat infestation which in turn increased the spread of disease, the most devastating being the Bubonic Plague.
M5WW TIL When hot water freezes faster than cold water, the effect is called “the Mpemba Effect”. It’s named after Tanzanian Erasto Mpemba who was originally ridiculed for bringing it up in class after noticing his warmer ice cream mix was freezing before the cooler batch
awM9J TIL Chevy had an option on almost all of its cars in the 60s called "Liquid Chain". It would spray a traction enhancing substance on the tires to aid traction in snow.
VBRxD TIL that while there are numerous instances of feral children being found living in close proximity to animals, there are no eyewitness accounts of animals feeding human children. They are kept alive by human caregivers, being abused and neglected
KjrQ TIL the astronauts aboard Apollo 11 couldn’t afford the life insurance policy for an astronaut, so they hatched an alternate plan. Prior to their mission, the three signed hundreds of autographs while under quarantine for their families to sell if anything were to happen to them.