› added 7 years ago

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TIL there was a plan in the 1920s/30s to dam the Mediterranean Sea, create a series of hydroelectric dams, lower sea levels and make North Africa more fertile. It was imagined by a German who wanted to avoid another world war for resources, land and energy by providing plentiful resources for Europe

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69RN7 TIL that Nicaraguan Sign Language was created entirely by deaf children interacting together in a vocational school for the deaf that focused on teaching lipreading & spoken Spanish.
9jEG TIL the words “apron” and “napkin” were originally “napron” and “apkin” but the preceding indefinite articles (“an” and “a”) were so confusing to the ear that the words eventually just changed.
oE0W TIL that NASA, during the Apollo program, had to rename urinal sleeves in sizes “small, medium, and large” to “large, gigantic, and humongous” because astronauts would only select large (regardless of their size) and the sleeves kept slipping off.
OGxL7 TIL that a man sued his own search warrant and won the case in the Supreme Court. Titled Marcus v. Search Warrant, he believed the warrant was too vague and was unable to sue any of the agents as they acted within the law.
X00jR TIL El Chapo’s wife Emma Coronel was sentenced to 3 years in prison for assisting her husband in his criminal enterprise. A minimum sentence of 10 years was originally planned. Government rumours assure her cooperation. Her life is now at risk, as the cartel does not forgive traitors or suspectes.