› added 8 years ago

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TIL: Intuit, the makers of TurboTax invest millions of dollars to lobby against simplifying the tax code.

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d88w9 TIL that saying "God Bless You" when someone sneezes likely originated from the time of the bubonic plague wherein one of the symptoms of the disease is sneezing. Saying "God bless you" to someone who just sneezed serves as a prayer for the person for his otherwise certain death.
WaMo TIL that rap battles existed long before. “Flyting” was an insult battle practiced even in Medieval England’s courts.
j6RaX TIL The radiomessage PAN-PAN is the international standard urgency signal that someone aboard a boat, ship, aircraft, or other vehicle uses to declare that they need help and that the situation is urgent, but does not pose an immediate danger to the vessel or anyone's life
78MjX TIL that a scientist in the Ottoman Empire made an unpowered flight across the Bosphorus strait by jumping off the Galata tower. The Sultan then gave him a bag of gold and exiled him to Algeria.
wQ7J TIL Alaska was never meant to be separated from the rest of the United States, but would be linked when British Columbia also joined. Instead, the Alaska Purchase compelled British Columbia to join the Canadian Confederation 3 months later.