› added 7 years ago

313

TIL The SEC was repeatedly and explicitly warned about the Madoff Ponzi scheme for 10 years by a forensic accountant. Over and over again they ignored the warnings and did nothing.

Read more npr.org

via reddit.com

0wRrj TIL the U.S. Congress passed a tax on long distance phone calls to pay for the Spanish-American War (1898). The war ended 4 months later, but the tax remained in place for over 100 years. On August 1, 2006, the IRS announced it would no longer collect the tax.
kOyam TIL that people used to believe that mischievous sprits lived in the grains of wood, so while they were speaking about good fortune they would "knock on wood" to make noise so that the spirits couldn't hear what they were saying and cause their fortune to take a turn for the worse.
XE8eD TIL that Morse code is officially considered obsolete and was removed as an international standard for communication in 1999. The French Navy's last Morse message read; "Calling all. This is our last cry before our eternal silence."
QNJEe TIL - Toyota was caught cheating in the '95 World Rally Championship. Engineers developed a mechanism to temporarily remove the mandated turbo restrictor plate and give their Celica an extra 50 BHP.
oRWYL TIL Computer Shopper magazines used to be over 1000 pages, about 2 inches thick, and weigh over a pound. While at a Comdex trade show, some of the editors and writers took a pile of the magazines to a Las Vegas gun range and were surprised to discover the magazine could not stop a .22 caliber bullet