› added 10 years ago

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TIL the US Department of Transportation considers the value of a statistical life at $9.1 million dollars.

Read more transportation.gov

via reddit.com

VMd0m TIL that the US has less population than Europe, and even the population-rich states are smaller than large European countries
neRx9 TIL that former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt was a heavy smoker. He was well known for lighting up during TV interviews and talk shows. He was also charged with defying smoking bans. In 1981 he got a pacemaker. Despite these he died as the longest living chancellor at the age of 96.
BgQ4x TIL about the Bouba-Kiki effect: When presented with two shapes, one rounded and one “sharp”, people from most cultures, languages and age groups will strongly tend to associate “Kiki” with the sharp and “Bouba” with the rounded.
4XAgg TIL about the 761st Tank Battalion, an all African American unit was considered "one of most effective tank battalions in World War II", and that baseball legend Jackie Robinson had been a member prior to the unit shipping overseas.
y9EV TIL that when a whale dies and its carcass falls into the Bathyal or Abyssal zone of the ocean floor, it can sustain a complex localized ecosystem of deep-sea organisms for decades. This is called a “whale fall”.