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TIL salt was so important throughout human history that the word ‘salary’ derives from the Latin word salārium, referring to money given to soldiers so they could buy salt.

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e0Vkn TIL: A submarine ran out of fuel about 100 miles from hawaii while searching for a lost tug. Sub R14 had empty reserve tanks, no radio communications and a week's worth of food. Crew rigged up blankets and mattress covers as sails. It sailed back to Hawaii over 5 days.
PYMPZ TIL The Amityville Horror is an admitted hoax, confessed to by the lawyer that assisted in fabricating the story; The motive for which, was to gain a new trial for his client Butch DeFeo (the man who murdered his family whilst they slept in the house)
KYdMQ TIL the true story of Moby Dick. A whale sunk a crew’s main ship - leaving 3 sailboats. They’d live if they sailed to a nearby island. Out of fear from (false) stories of cannibalism, they tried going back to the mainland. In tragic irony, they got lost at sea and had to resort to cannibalism.
OoWg4 TIL DeepSqueak software identifies rodent vocalizations using neural networks like those developed for self-driving cars. Researchers have found about 20 different calls, such as happy ones when anticipating a reward or playing with friends, or courtship when males are with females.
Z8DN4 TIL the caduceus, the traditional symbol of Hermes which features two snakes winding around an often winged staff is often mistakenly used as a symbol of medicine. The Rod of Asclepius, featuring one snake around a rod is the correct symbol.