› added 9 years ago

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TIL Earning interest on loaned money originates from the lending of “food money” that was commonplace in Middle Eastern civilizations as early as 5000 B.C. The argument that acquired seeds and animals could “reproduce themselves” was used to justify interest.

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9wMpQ TIL that there’s at least one parasitic plant that mimics the host plant it is feeding off of — even if that “plant” is fake. The mechanism of this remains unsolved. “Plant sight” via its epidermis cells is considered one possibility.
x6JXk TIL Yiannis Kouros won the 1988 Westfield Sydney to Melbourne Ultramarathon (537 mi, 864 km) even though he started 12 hours behind the rest of the field after the organizers of the race challenged him to do so. In total, he won 5 of the 9 times the event was held.
N7ZmM TIL that in 1140, when a opposition castle was captured by King Konrad III, the women of the castle were granted free departure and allowed to take what they could carry on their backs. Thinking quickly, the women carried the men on their backs. The King kept his word and let the men live.
LQmQQ Today I learned that in chariot racing women were allowed to win races through property, although there was a ban on married women participating as competitors or even spectators in the Olympics, supposedly under penalty of death.
VBNwQ TIL in 2002, Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and brutally murdered in Pakistan while researching a story on militant links. His captors even released a disturbing video of his beheading. His body was cut into 10 pieces.