Today I Learned (TIL)

12 readers
1 users here now

Rules
  1. Posts must begin with "TIL".
  2. Posts must be about a specific fact. No "TIL about [ducks]."

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
26
 
 

On the other hand, apparently the Italians loved him:

In Ferrazzano, the village which De Niro's great grandparents left in search of the US dream in the late 19th century, most of its 3,280 residents are among his greatest fans and are adamant that he should be formally made an Italian. He does not officially qualify for a passport because neither his parents nor his grandparents were Italian born.

De Niro was born in New York in 1943, and has never visited the village.

Every August for eight years, the village's now wealthy population of lawyers, doctors and office workers, most of who commute to work in the nearby town of Campobasso, has turned out for a week long festival of De Niro films.

27
 
 

The Big Mac index started as a joke, but became a somewhat respectable—if still highly informal—way of measuring Purchasing Power Parity. Argentina took advantage of this by making it really cheap but hiding it so no one would order it, artificially improving the country's score.

28
29
 
 

Hence why they're called tread-"mills"—they were used to power mills to pump water or grind grain.

30
31
 
 

"Power" (or "Potenz" or "puissance") is the most common claim, but potential, pondus, and percent are also common. When the original author designated it, he implied that it was just a random mathematical letter, akin to x, and that it didn't stand for anything, although from context one could argue it stood for potential?

32
33
34
 
 

Quite a unique domain name and nice focus that the instance has, cool!

35
36