› added 11 years ago

1136

TIL that the formula used to calculate the US’ poverty level is outdated. It is based off of the cost of living during the 1960’s when food was a family’s largest expenditure. If adjustments are made to the formula to reflect life today, then around 45.7 million Americans would be living in poverty.

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p8Jl4 TIL Germany has its own semi-equivalent of American "sovereign citizens", who consider themselves citizens of a surviving Nazi German government-in-exile, and as such not subject to the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany.
loOdB TIL A man once sued a dry cleaner’s for $67M over a late return of a pair of pants. He reduced it to $45 million in court. The case was thrown out multiple times, the man lost his job as he was a judge himself, and the dry cleaners was forced to close their shop due to court costs.
NXaoQ TIL: Eight Chinese men were on board the Titanic. Six survived the sinking, but when they arrived in New York they were deported within 24 hours because of the Chinese Exclusion Act. Their story was largely erased from history until recently rediscovered.
e01w6 TIL of the "Vegetable Lamb of Tartary", a myth from the Middle Ages about a plant that sprouted sheep instead of fruit. For hundreds of years people would write about & even draw this wool-covered plant. We now know what it was: the cotton plant.
R58ka TIL of the Locked-in syndrome, a rare disorder of the nervous system. People with locked-in syndrome are: Paralyzed except for the muscles that control eye movement. Conscious (aware) and can think and reason, but cannot move or speak