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TIL A packet of cigarettes in Australia will cost $40 by 2020

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via ift.tt

x6ol5 TIL Servilia's pearl was a black pearl given by Julius Caesar to his favourite mistress. According to Suetonius it was worth 6 million sesterces (approximately $1.5 billion now.)
gMyK8 TIL that the Basque language is a "language isolate" - it seems to have no genetic relation to any other known language. It is thought to be the last surviving remnant of an ancient language family that existed in Western Europe before the arrival of the Indo-European languages from the East.
R7WRl TIL in the USA there's a business sector called "Vehicle Impoundment" that can legally possess vehicles if they're illegally parked or similar. The owner then has to pay a fee to get it back or else they will lose possession of it.
JYbgl TIL K9s are trained to sniff for hidden electronic devices like thumb drives, HDDs, phones and laptops.
yQN08 TIL that World War II naval minefields still exist to this day because the minefields are too extensive and costly to remove. It is possible that these 1940s era mines can remain just as deadly as the day they were laid for years to come.