› added 6 days ago

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TIL from around the 12th Century until about 200 years ago, sticks, called tally sticks, were used to record large financial transactions. This is the origin of the word “stock” (as in trading stocks) and lead to the burning down of the Palace of Westminster in 1834.

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Wk9WL TIL: When roosters open their beaks fully, their external auditory canals completely closed off. Basically, roosters have built in earplugs. This helps prevent them from damaging their hearing when they crow.
6paY TIL of Sufiah Yusof, a genius child enrolled at Oxford at 12 who became a prostitute entertaining clients with her ability to recite equations during sexual acts.
J448 TIL courtroom tv judges aren’t actually presiding over civil cases. They’re acting as arbitrators over dramatizations of legal cases that are resolved through a form of binding arbitration.
4kodR TIL that the movie "Never Been Kissed" is based on a true story where a 26-year old reporter went undercover in a San Francisco high school as a student.
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