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TIL Fresh Water and Salt Water Drown You Differently

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4Xn8o TIL Mt. Everest was involuntarily named after George Everest, the surveyor-general of India. Andrew Waugh hoped to honor his predessor. When Everest found out, he hated the idea because the Sherpa people couldn't pronounce his name, and it didn't translate to Hindi. Waugh did it anyway.
R77N7 TIL that an English inventor named Maurice Ward (1933-2011) invented a thermal shielding material called Starlite which was able to withstand extreme heat (10000 degrees C), but never revealed its composition in fear of reverse engineering and losing control of rights to the material.
8aEVa TIl of The “rural purge” of American television networks (in particular CBS) which was a series of cancellations in the early 1970s of still-popular rural-themed shows that led toward ones with supposedly more appeal to urban and suburban audiences.
16BLr TIL the land bought for Disney World in Florida is the same size as Paris, France
GAAkJ TIL the graphic design of Swiss 2 franc coin has not been updated for 148 years. Other than datestamp, the 2022 coins look identical to 1874 coins.