› added 5 years ago

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TIL In 1999, NASA lost a $125 million Mars orbiter because half the project staff used imperial measurements and the other half used metric.

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16VDO TIL that the largest 4th of July celebration outside of the US occurs in Rebild National Park in Denmark. The park was donated to the Danish government on the condition that it would serve as a place where Danish-Americans could celebrate American holidays
yVyPp TIL switzerland has a "marriage penalty" that leaves married, childless couples in a financial disadvantage
yQ7XM TIL that scientists placed speakers on dead patches of coral in the Great Barrier Reef and replicated the sounds of healthy coral reef. They discovered that twice as many fish arrived and stayed compared to equivalent patches where no sound was played.
E1kKo TIL an October 2019 study with Evite showed the average American hasn't made a new friend in 5+ years
e0Q4E TIL of Sin Eaters. In parts of England, Scotland, and Wales up until the 19th century, when a person died the family would pay a man to eat a piece of bread off the deceased in order to absorb their sins, risking their souls for a few pence