› added 4 years ago

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TIL about a single-cell organism called Cafeteria Roenbergensis

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l7JZ5 TIL: "Silhouette" is derived from the French finance minister, Étienne de Silhouette. de Silhouette's strict economies made his name synonymous with anything done/made cheaply. Before photography, silhouette profiles cut from black card were the cheapest way of recording a person's appearance.
awYny TIL Because the number 8 is considered very lucky in Chinese culture, a Chinese man spent the equivalent of 1 millions RMB to secure a license plate reading '88888' in the hope of increasing his luck, to get pulled over 8 times by cops who thought the plate was a fake.
YgDd TIL the term “meh” as an indifferent response gained popularity in the modern lexicon after its use on “The Simpsons.”
pEVN TIL that in 1963, the Quebec government bought out all the private power companies and nationalized electricity. Today, 96% of Quebec’s power is from hydroelectricity, and it has some of the cheapest electricity rates in North America while earning billions in revenue.
e0VE4 TIL inspired by the Black Mirror episode "Be Right Back," a software developer gathered over 8,000 lines of text from friends and family of her recently deceased best friend, and used it to create an artificial intelligence simulation of him.