› added 5 years ago

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TIL: Rice University has a nonprofit ed-tech based initiative called OpenStax, which provides completely free, openly licensed college and university level textbooks for various subjects.

Read more openstax.org

via reddit.com

9wQo7 TIL the famous Hollywood sign was in a state of disrepair and ultimately torn down for three months in 1978. Playboy’s Hugh Hefner helped rebuild it via a $250K fundraising campaign. He then donated $900K to save it again in 2010.
Qpda TIL “Gringo” did not originate in Mexico to describe Americans, but in Spain in the 1700’s to describe foreigners whose speech was incomprehensible. Gringo likely came from the word “griego” meaning Greek, which in Spanish was used in the same way as English, “it’s Greek to me” (hablar in griego).
Mep68 TIL dogs are red-green color blind and 20/75 vision
696WZ TIL about decade volcanoes: 16 volcanoes with a history of particularly violent eruptions near population centers
kOZX4 TIL that is 2011, Saudi Arabia detained an Israeli vulture on suspicion of spying after it was discovered with a GPS transmitter attached to it.