› added 7 years ago

157

TIL Sand Pirates exist, along with a black market for sand. Pirates come to Cambodia and illegally dredge up sand, then the sell it to Singapore, which uses the sand to expand its coastline.

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kO44d TIL the setting knob on toasters isn't a timer. It determines "doneness" by a thermal sensor that responds to how much heat is passing through the toast
n5OW TIL that in 1985 two researchers from Oxford published a paper that put the definitive date of Jesus’ crucifixion at Friday, April 3, 33 AD
mxabx TIL Codex Gigas, largest manuscript in the world was the work of a single scribe according to a legend he added devil's picture out of gratitude for his aid. It is estimated it would have taken twenty years of non-stop writing to produce the work without the illustrations or embellishments.
J1wWj TIL that Flash memory got its name because the process of erasing the device called to mind the flash of a camera.
m1xpR TIL that one of the earliest recorded variations of classic dad phrase "Women: can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em" is found in a speech from 102 B.C. by Roman Censor Q. Caecilius Metellus Numidicus, in a speech that would be repeated by Caesar Augustus nearly a century later