› added 11 years ago

97

TIL there are more public libraries than McDonald’s in the United States

Read more librariesforreallife.org

via reddit.com

mxWVx TIL Washington is the first state to allow the composting of human remains. The law allows organic reduction using wood chips & straw, or alkaline hydrolysis aka liquid cremation. Tests of donated bodies resulted in rich, odorless soil passing all federal & state safety guidelines.
EQk7 TIL that Lawrence Summers used to be the President of Harvard, but was forced to resign following comments he made suggesting that discrimination might not be the main reason men outnumber women in tenured STEM positions at top universities.
LQj7d TIL that Jeffrey Hudson, a court dwarf of the English Queen Henrietta Maria, shot a man in a duel, after which he went into exile, was captured by Barbary pirates, spent 25 years enslaved in North Africa during which he grew 25 inches, which he attributed to the hard conditions.
b9KV4 TIL a year with 13 months of 28 days with a Year Day and Leap Day was already invented in 1902 and used in Eastman Kodak Company. The new month was named Sol in between June and July.
vdaB TIL: Tim Martin, the owner of the Weatherspoons pub chain in the UK named it after his schoolteacher who said he would never amount to anything in business.