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TIL that a 1916 zoning law in NYC allows skyscrapers to go as high as they want as long as they cut back in on themselves. The “setback law” allows for sunlight and air to pass through to smaller buildings and street level. These tiered skyscrapers helped to give rise to the Art Deco style.

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XEdyR TIL about Decimal Time. Implemented during the French Revolution, it was thought up to simplify time and better regulate work. Clocks/calendars were changed so that a week now had 10 days, a day had 10 hours, an hour had a 100 minutes, and a minute had a 1000 seconds.
w8l7 TIL that in 19th Century carnivals in USA, cigars were given as prizes. People who lost at a particular sideshow were told; “close, but no cigar”.
7r49b TIL that pop culture gargoyles have been used to repair and replace decaying carvings on cathedrals, including the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., which added a bust of Darth Vader in the 1980s, the contest-winning entry from Christopher Rader, a 13-year-old kid from Nebraska.
X6KE TIL there is more gold in the Earth than silver, mercury, iodine, and uranium combined.
wLmgP TIL That in Brazil when a kid is lost on the beach people start to clap around him so the parents can find him easy