› added 9 years ago

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TIL that sending the New Horizons space probe to Pluto on a 15 year mission costs less than building the new Minnesota Vikings stadium

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ZpWLQ TIL that American Airlines created Sabre, the multi-airline reservation system. Knowing that more than 50% of travel agents chose the first flight they saw, American modified the ranking system to display its flights before those from rivals. The US outlawed such manipulation in 1984.
6Exxm TIL of the "stability-instability paradox": as nuclear deterrence makes large-scale conflict between two powerful states unthinkable, it paradoxically increases the frequency of small-scale/proxy conflicts, as neither side fears the other will want to escalate a small conflict into a large one.
Z879R TIL the Soviet Union and the United States were originally in talks to go to the moon together during the Cold War. Nikita Khrushchev was poised to accept the plan but then President Kennedy was assassinated. The Soviets did not trust Vice President Johnson, so Khrushchev rejected the plan.
16lPO TIL: In 2015, an Italian Supreme Court enshrined workers’ right to watch porn on the job
gMlEW TIL that during China's one child policy, 324 million Chinese women were pressured into being surgically fitted with contraceptive devices and 108 million were sterilized