› added 10 years ago

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TIL that Iceland let its banks fail instead of bailing them out. In 2008, the country started over from square one after paying off loans for consumers, forgiving homeowner debt, and throwing the offenders responsible in prison. Its economy is now growing faster than the US and European economies.

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ROrQ TIL of astronomer Guillaume Le Gentil who in 1760 went from France to India to measure the transit of Venus. He missed out on both chances to do so, contracted dysentery and nearly went insane. When he made it home he learned he had been declared dead, his wife remarried and his estate plundered
78JQL TIL that Samuel L. Jackson was not supposed to wear jheri curls in “Pulp Fictions”. He was going to wear an afro, but that wig was brought to the set by mistake.
6goJ TIL that “headless photographs” were a fad in the late 1800s.
BrZND TIL Frank Zappa's 1969 album Hot Rats was one of the first albums to use a 16 track recorder, and among the first to record drums on multiple tracks, giving stereo drums, all of which helped achieve outstanding technical quality.
6pkY TIL the difference between robbery and burglary is robbery is done with a victim present while burglary is performed when no victim is around.