› added 10 years ago

317

TIL More money is put into incarceration than education

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via reddit.com

NXXe1 TIL that the last battle of the thirty years war was fought at Prague where the war started thirty years earlier during the bohemian revolt. Swedish forces took parts of the city including Prague castle and looted it for months before being repelled by bohemian forces.
4pvN TIL an electronics store chain that advertised stereos for “299 bananas” honored the television offer and lost over $10,000 when customers started showing up with loads of the fruit.
xPe5 TIL a counterfeiter, dubbed the Omega Man, produced coins so perfect that they we’re indistinguishable if not for “the omega symbol that he arrogantly leaves as his trademark.”
v1pxK TIL: The creators of the "Golden Record" - an audio recording sent into outer space aboard the Voyager spacecraft - wanted to include "Here Come the Sun" by the Beatles, but couldn't afford the $50,000 licensing fee demanded by the band's record company.
4kM1w TIL that in the late 18th/early 19th centuries, an explorer traveled over 90,000 kilometres (56,000 mi) across North America, and mapped 4.9 million square kilometres (1.9 million square miles) of the continent.