› added 3 weeks ago

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TIL that the first recorded Ponzi scheme wasn’t by Charles Ponzi: it was by German Adele Spitzeder in the 19th century, who used new investors’ money to repay old investors. At her height, she was the wealthiest woman in Bavaria, until she was convicted of bad accounting and stripped of her assets

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xNNo TIL that Washington, D.C. uses a series of acoustic sensors called “ShotSpotter” to detect gunfire. When “ShotSpotter” sensors detect a loud noise, a central computer program analyzes the acoustic signature, pinpoints the suspected location to within a few yards and notifies police.
XnLk TIL - Actress Toni Collette pretended to have appendicitis at age 11. Her acting was so convincing that doctors performed an appendectomy. Her removed appendix was found to be completely normal.
4XP55 TIL that Paul Simon listed "Fakin' It" as being 2:74 because radio stations wouldn't play anything listed at over 3 minutes long
xMP5 TIL that Titan’s atmosphere is denser than Earth’s, with 1.45 times the surface pressure. The atmosphere is so thick and the gravity so low that you could play planes very very easily, and even humans can fly there by attaching ‘wings’ to their arms and flapping.
1aA78 TIL that the Soviet AA-2 Atoll missile was reverse engineered from a US AIM-9 Sidewinder after it became lodged in a Chinese MiG-17 without exploding. The lead Soviet engineer at Vympel said, the missile was a "university offering a course in missile construction technology."