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TIL from my Bolivian co-worker that Potosi (the largest city in the new world 1545) had more than 40,000 tons of silver shipped out of the town, making the Spanish Empire one of the richest the world had ever seen. He said it Bolivians claim it was enough silver to build an transatlantic bridge.

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via reddit.com

xVxB TIL: There is a cave full of MASSIVE CRYSTALS 304 meters underneath Mexico. Seriously “Journey To The Centre Of The Earth” style.
OobK1 TIL that in 1971, as part of an experiment to study the causes and effects of landslides, Japanese scientists watered down a hill using fire hoses to simulate the effect of a torrential rainstorm. The soil on the hill gave way and the resulting landslide killed 4 scientists and 11 observers.
R5BrQ TIL that in the United Kingdom, prior to the 1840 introduction of postage stamps, letters were paid for by the recipient. The cost was determined by the distance from sender to recipient, and the number of sheets of paper used.
l7RB5 TIL that Canadian serial killer nurse Elizabeth Wettlaufer told her pastor that she had murdered four people and the pastor kept his promise not to turn her in. She would go on to murder two others.
KYM0E TIL Craig Mazin, the writer of The Last of Us and Chernobyl also wrote Superhero Movie and co-wrote Scary Movie 3 & 4