› added 9 years ago

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TIL China Used More Concrete in 3 Years than the US did in the 20th Century

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via reddit.com

4dDR TIL the word Mortgage is a French Law term meaning “death pledge”.
nePEP TIL that Muammar Gaddafi has a bisexual professional footballer son, who hired Diego Maradona as a consultant, played for teams in Italy’s first division, captained Libya, bribed referees, made sure stadium announcers in Libya only announced his name, did a lot of cocaine, and had an Interpol notice
Z8KZo TIL When Japanese prime minister Keizō Obuchi was a young man and short on money, he travelled to thirty-eight countries, completely circumnavigating the globe and taking odd jobs as he went. These included being a dishwasher, an assistant aikido instructor and a TV camera crew assistant in Berlin
yQbbv TIL of the General delegation for the French language and languages of France (aka the French Language Police) whose job is to research emerging English words and come up with French equivalents to keep the language alive.
KYZ0Q TIL, unlike most birds, kiwis have horrible eyesight and are frequently prone to ophthalmological issues. As a result, they naturally rely so heavily on other senses that some have been found to have survived perfectly well albeit completely blind in the wild for years.