› added 10 years ago

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TIL that penguins spend approximately 75% of their life in the water.

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via reddit.com

rNdK4 TIL early credit cards were launched in "drops", wherein banks would mail unsolicited cards to tens of thousands of customers at once. The banks then leveraged that customer base to get local stores to accept the cards. Over 100 million cards were distributed before drops were made illegal in 1970.
5YR6r TIL about the existence of "reverse money laundering", the process of disguising the use of clean money to finance illegal activities.
wLMJP TIL Curious George's name is "Hitomane Kozaru" in Japan, "Peter Pedal" in Denmark, and "Nicke Nyfiken" in Sweden. He was given the spunky name "Zozo" in the UK, because people thought it was disrespectful to name a monkey after the current king.
RO4a TIL: in 2011, United States business incurred $29 billion dollars in direct costs because of patent trolls.
Eg5D0 TIL that in WW2 there was a Soviet all-female bomber regiment nicknamed by the Germans die Nachthexen, which translates to Night Witches. The regiment flew harassment and precision bombing missions against the German military from 1942 until the end of WW2.