› added 9 years ago

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TIL the term “slush fund” comes from the age of sailing when salted meat was kept in barrels. After the barrel was finished, there was a slushy mix of fat and salt left over which was saved and then sold at port, the funds were then used to purchase a luxury for the crew.

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ADG1w TIL London pays yearly rent for a property to the Queen since 1211 with an axe, a knife, 6 horseshoes, and 61 nails.
R7OP4 TIL about Alexander Winton, who built and sold the first American-made gasoline car on March 24, 1898. The public was skeptical. "To advocate replacing the horse, which had served man through centuries, marked one as an imbecile."
Wv6A TIL there’s a volcano in Indonesia that erupts with blue lava. Local men trek up the mountain daily to mine its sulfur - they carry loads of 180-200 pounds, but the sulfur only sells for only 2.5 cents/pound, so many men make the climb twice a day.
eV6g TIL the Yugoslav army used microwave ovens to fool the NATO. Missiles would home in on any strong source of radio emission in the 400-10000 MHz range, exactly the range of household microwave ovens. In the next days, NATO pilots bombed microwave ovens placed in empty fields instead of Serbian tanks
p8Jge TIL: Most Canadians can just email or text eachother money. All the major Canadian banks offer services from a company called Interac which include debit and e transfer services, the latter can be sent to an email address or by text message, most banks do not charge for the service.