› added 5 years ago

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TIL About polymer banknotes, and how they're in general circulation in at least 30 countries. They were first developed in Australia to replace paper banknotes with a more secure and more durable alternative.

GYX85 TIL Gary Hart, a politician running for president in 1988, invited the media to follow him around after he was alleged to be a womanizer. He was quoted as saying, “Follow me around. I don't care. I'm serious.” Members of the media complied and he was caught having an affair 2 weeks later.
4XGmo TIL The same bomber group that nuked Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the 509th Composite Group, was also the first U.S. Military group to respond to the 9/11 attacks. The group was at the time (2001) and still is known as the 509th Bomb Wing, stationed in Whiteman AFB, Missouri.
gMLm7 TIL about the "Mad Hatterpillar" Uraba lugens, the gum-leaf skeletoniser, Nicknamed the mad hatterpillar because of its distinctive exoskeletal feature. Every time it sheds the head portion of its exoskeleton, stays attached creating a stack of increasingly large heads!
wowjW TIL in 1929 in the first Academy Awards four films were nominated for best cinematography and George Barnes was cinematographer for three of them. He lost to the fourth film (Sunrise).
gMDYA TIL in 2007 a group of traders managed to lose $9 billion by first insuring mortgages that they didn't realise were very risky, and then doubting that a default rate that would make their portfolio unprofitable would be possible.