› added 12 years ago

87

TIL the word hexadecimal should really be sexadecimal (proper latin) or hexadecadic (proper greek) but hexadecimal was used so that computer hackers wouldn’t abbreviate it as “sex”.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

nvo7 TIL the most powerful commercial radio station ever was WLW (700KHz AM), which during certain times in the 1930s broadcast 500kW radiated power. At night, it covered half the globe. Neighbors within the vicinity of the transmitter heard the audio in their pots, pans, and mattresses.
epWEk TIL the company that makes ‘Baby Ruth’ candy sued Babe Ruth for company infringement when he tried to create his own candy company. They claimed it was named after Grover Cleveland’s daughter, Ruth, who had died 17 years before the candy hit the market. Babe Ruth lost the suit.
4kV75 TIL that according to the FBI and Homeland Security, over 100 firefighters in the US are convicted of arson every year, and many of the cases are swept under the rug, downplayed or completely ignored.
GA48N TIL the total population of the world’s great whales is worth over $1 trillion, largely due to the carbon they capture and the ecosystems they support, according to the IMF
yQQMp TIL that surgeons and their staff play music 62-72% of the time while operating on patients