› added 3 years ago

198

TIL Isaac Newton got swept up in the investing madness of the South Seas Bubble and lost out to the tune of ~£20 000 000 (in today's money)

Read more physicstoday.scitation.org

via reddit.com

D1rlD TIL :Police in West Midlands, U.K. have hung posters with photographs of staring eyes exploiting a phenomenon called “gaze detection". While humans evolved it to avoid being eaten by predators, some law enforcement agencies believe that it might actually help to deter some crimes.
xxD0 TIL there is a unique career known as a ‘Professional Fan’ and only belongs to one person. His name is Cameron Hughes and he gets paid by sports teams to cheer at their games.
Xd0D Til Sergey Bubka broke the pole vault world record in 1984 then kept breaking it every year after by as small an amount as possible for the reward money.
MeyyW TIL that the planes (Boeing B-29 Bomber) that carried the atomic bombs in WW2 cost more to develop than the entire Manhattan project
rW8o TIL That a Fraud Examiner went to the SEC in 2005 with a report showing Madoff’s returns were impossible but the SEC didn’t bother investigating the analysis