› added 7 years ago

279

TIL that Sir Isaac Newton, while Master of the Royal Mint, personally went undercover in bars and taverns to root out rampant counterfeiting, which was high treason (punishable by being hanged, drawn and quartered). He successfully prosecuted 28 counterfeiters in 18 months.

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Yprmx TIL Desert sand is effectively useless for construction. Saudi Arabia imports sand from Australia.
rRy4 TIL In 1939, Hitler’s nephew wrote an article called “Why I Hate My Uncle.” He came to the U.S., served in the Navy, and settled on Long Island.
E1DrX TIL one of the oldest statues in Bern, Switzerland is of a guy eating babies, and nobody really knows why it’s there.
PY6mw TIL Isaac Newton was so obsessed with religion and alchemy that he wrote far more words on them than he ever did about gravity or optics.
epAlL TIL that commercial fishing used to deliberately surround, trap and drown dolphins that would get in the way of the tuna which led to a government act to protect and label tuna caught without harming dolphins as “dolphin safe” tuna.