› added 12 years ago

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TIL that Pearson (a London textbook company) makes $90 million per year to make the state of Texas standardized test (this does not include profit from textbook sales). Every few years they change the contents of the test so that school are forced to buy new books for the new curriculum.

grrKy TIL in June 2021, a Diver off the coast of Massachusetts was swallowed by a whale. He was trapped in its mouth for nearly a minute before being belched out, surviving with minor injuries.
dPr8 TIL that if a norwegian loses his/her job or can’t find a job, the state will pay you a salary until you find a job. It’s called NAV.
LkJA9 TIL African elephants often bury dead or sleeping humans or aid them when they are hurt. One woman fell asleep under a tree and woke to find an elephant standing over her gently touching her. As other elephants arrived they buried her under branches. She was found the next morning unharmed.
yVn6a TIL Bowditch's American Practical Navigator, an encyclopedia of navigation, has been in print since 1802. It is so popular that it's colloquially referred to after it's original author "Bowditch". In 1867 the US government bought the copyright and has published 52 editions of it since then.
9YVVp TIL Roman Emperor Julian the Apostate issued an edict of religious toleration. The rationale for the edict was most likely based less on high minded principles and more on the idea that giving legal cover to heretic clerics would lead the Christians to bicker themselves to death