› added 11 years ago

102

TIL that The City of London is surrounded by the “Ring of Steel” - described as a “surveillance cordon” with almost half a million surveillance cameras. The roads entering the City are narrowed to force drivers to slow down and be recorded by the cameras.

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YGyG TIL the fax machine was invented before the telephone
wLP4J TIL Chicago mobster Sam DeStefano loaned money at interest rates of 25% by week to very high-risk debtors such as drug addicts, in order to torture them in his cellar when they defaulted
oBmGW TIL that a 16th century clock maker built a 15 inch high automaton monk that walked and appeared to pray. It is still functioning, and is housed in the Smithsonian
yQ6AM TIL between 1900-1906 black Oklahomans doubled in population, due in part to the efforts of Edward P McCabe who founded the city of Langston as part of a program to create 25 all black settlements, take over a majority of voting districts and create an all black state.
VKl0 TIL DLP projectors use up to 8 million hinged microscopic mirrors that can each move independently up to 10,000 times per second!