› added 5 years ago

101

TIL about 'Umarells', a term used in Italy used to describe old men, who watch over construction sites with their hands behind their backs, offering unwanted advice.

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awgjo TIL about "Stolpersteine" (german for stumbling stones) which are small cobblestones with the names and fates of Nazi Victims. They are placed all over Europe in front of the last free home the victim had before deportation. Over 70,000 have been placed so far.
E7mw TIL: William Wrigley Jr. originally started in the baking powder business. With his powder, he gave a free pack of his gum. He later abandoned the baking powder business when he learned that people were buying it just to get the gum.
x6Nvk TIL that because all US banknotes are the same size, making telling them apart hard-to-impossible for the blind, the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing provides an electronic device (the iBill Currency Identifier) that can identify the value of the bills free of charge.
KP4w TIL By paying a fee of $300 you could officially and legally avoid the civil war draft. You could also find a substitute to fight in your place, a tactic the rich often used to avoid being enlisted. To encourage recruits to join, even Abraham Lincoln paid a man $500 to enlist on his behalf.
VV68 TIL some schizophrenics can tickle themselves. Mentally sane people can predict the sensory consequences of their own actions and reduce them, whereas schizophrenics have trouble recognizing their own actions and often attribute their behavior to an alien source.