› added 11 years ago

161

TIL Mordor in LOTR is named after the old English word for ‘Murder’.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

b9KpQ TIL the 1847 NY Rural Cemetery Act authorizing nonprofit commercial graveyards on (then) rural land, and an 1852 law against new burials in Manhattan, have led to Queens containing over 5 million graves within its Cemetery Belt, such that the borough’s “dead population” now doubles its live one.
5VyM9 Today I learned that Finland has a unique "day fine" system for speeding tickets, where fines are calculated based on the offender's income, making penalties proportionate to one's earnings.
9xbp TIL Most of McDonald’s prizes from the late 80s til 2000 were won by employees in the promotional firm they hired to run them.
GAywg TIL the world record for farthest long-range rifle shot was set in 2022 at 4.4 miles on the 69th shot, defeating the previous record of 4 miles in 2019, which was also on the 69th shot
w5N1 TIL An Azerbaijani billionaire suddenly decided to build an artificial archipelago with a 100 billion dollar city, including the new worlds tallest building making it “the new Venice”