› added 5 years ago

72

TIL that the oldest recorded signs of a lottery date from the Han Dynasty in ancient China, and were used to help finance major government projects like the Great Wall.

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vP8YB TIL 'Lav mic' is the personal microphone people refer to, not 'live mic'
GYl95 TIL Alheira de Mirandela, a kosher bread sausage was invented in Portugal to help hide Jews from the Spanish inquisition. Jews had fled to Portugal from Spain & pretended to be Catholic, Catholic homes hung preserved meat sausages from the rafters, & Jews were conspicuous for their missing sausages
LQya0 TIL A woman once sued herself for the wrongful death of her husband. The district court threw out the suit saying that you can't sue yourself, but the case appealed to the supreme court who ruled that you can.
n0eo TIL of beehive fences, which are used to deter elephants by taking advantage of their natural fear of bees, and have reduced conflicts between humans and elephants with an 85% success rate.
W75p8 TIL that in medieval depictions of Moses, he is depicted as having horns, because the Latin word in Exodus ‘cornutam’ can either mean ‘shining’ or ‘horns’. One example is Michaelengo’s Moses in Basilica of San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome. The tradition ended around the time of this sculpture.