› added 4 years ago

107

TIL that Right Whales got their name from the fact that they conveniently float after being killed, and were thus know to whalers as the "right whale" to kill.

Read more nationalgeographic.com

via reddit.com

wLgZ8 TIL the founder of Yankee Candle sold his company but later went into business with his son before his passing. Their company is Kringle Candle, down the road from the original Yankee factory.
5EyR TIL that the Utah state bird is actually the California Gull because in 1848 the gulls flew in flocks from California to the Salt Lake Valley and consumed tens of thousands of “Mormon Crickets” that were devouring the crops, saving the harvest. It’s called ‘The miracle of the gulls’.
VMOw8 TIL French banks are still using a very old rule to calculate Bank accounts Interest on a Biweekly basis, and none have implemented a daily calculation yet. Back in the days bankers were manually doing accounting twice a month.
x6oGo TIL that a guy deliberately infected himself with hookworms in an attempt to treat his allergies and asthma.
4Xleb TIL that around 80% of money in the economy is just a bunch of zeros and ones (i.e digital)