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TIL Instead of donating money to the New York Food Bank, Toyota offered kaizen, a Japanese word meaning “continuous improvement”. Toyota sent its engineers to the soup kitchen and reduced wait time from 90 to 18 minutes.

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9Yg1G TIL The Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust is a grain reserve of commodities and cash. In 2008 the USDA sold the remaining stocks into an all cash reserve. Since it no longer holds commodities, it can respond to local food crises outside the US, but not to a global one that affects the USA itself.
BZ8x TIL The average high school student has the same level of anxiety as the average psychiatric patient would in 1950s.
8alrK TIL during filming of Gangs of New York, they built what was essentially a full scale complete replica of the Five Points in 1800's New York. According to the DVD commentary, George Lucas visited the set and explained that CGI effects would be much cheaper but Scorsese insisted on authenticity.
E1YGd TIL the chemical Thioacetone is the world's smelliest substance. It's so bad that, after a lab technician dropped a vial of it, it induced instant vomiting from people in buildings almost 1/2 mile away.
epwbn TIL the longest natural arch in the world was virtually unknown outside of China until it was discovered in 2009 using Google Earth. Named the Fairy Bridge, the span is ~400’ (122m) long and accessed by a 3-hour rafting trip down the Buliu River.