› added 6 years ago

79

TIL Ocho de Plata, the Spanish Dollar, was the first legal tender in the United States until the Coinage Act of 1857. In fact, equity shares were still quoted in eighths of a dollar until 2001; this was a legacy from the coin’s divisibility by 8, since each Spanish Dollar was worth 8 reales.

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e0w5D TIL that bamboo is the fastest growing plant in the world and can grow roughly 0.9 meters in a day if presented with the appropriate conditions.
b9jg9 TIL about 'Factory Schools' which is about how our education system builds most of us as product for some factory/org keeping us in dark about various aspects of human life.
PYkBn TIL “the ancient Greeks used spider web clusters to stop bleeding in soldiers. They combined honey and vinegar to clean out the wounds. Then a wad of spider webs would be placed on top and held until the bleeding reduced.”
5YWrQ TIL that the phone system's three rising tones (Special Information Tone, or SIT) comes in 8 varieties that are similar but can be distinguished by electronic equipment. It was designed so equipment could identify the error, even without understanding the spoken message.
E1yMV TIL that “Boo” comes from the Latin, meaning “I am crying aloud!”, which means that when ghosts say “boo!” they are basically saying “I am yelling!”