gnostek1 / 6Zimbabwean banknotes ranging from 10 dollars to 100 billion dollars printed within a one-year period. The magnitude of the currency scalars signifies the extent of the hyperinflation.
01By November 2008, Zimbabwe's annual inflation rate was officially 89,700,000,000,000,000,000,000% — 89.7 sextillion percent.
02The Reserve Bank issued a 100-trillion-dollar note; it bought roughly three eggs at the time of printing.
03Zimbabwe abandoned its own currency entirely in 2009, making the US dollar and South African rand legal tender.
gnostek
01Spencer's DNA conviction in 1994 was the first execution in U.S. history based solely on genetic evidence.
02His DNA simultaneously exonerated David Vasquez, who had falsely confessed and served five years for one murder.
03Spencer killed four women in the Richmond area between 1987 and 1988; he was called 'The Southside Strangler.'
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01Owner Bill Veeck hid Gaedel inside a papier-mâché birthday cake before wheeling him onto the field.
02The American League president voided Gaedel's contract the very next morning.
03Gaedel's strike zone was measured at 1.5 inches; pitcher Bob Cain laughed so hard he could barely throw.
gnostek
01GW170817 produced an estimated 3–13 Earth masses of pure gold in under two seconds.
02The kilonova was spotted 130 million light-years away in galaxy NGC 4993 on August 17, 2017.
03R-process nucleosynthesis — the only mechanism for forging heavy metals — requires neutron star merger density.
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01The peregrine's stoop tops 240 mph — faster than a Formula 1 car at full race speed.
02Bony tubercles inside its nostrils slow incoming air so its lungs don't rupture at dive speed.
03Peregrine falcons hunt by diving from directly above, striking prey at angles that make escape geometrically impossible.
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01Radcliffe was given five weeks to partition a subcontinent he had never visited, then paid £3,000.
02The line split the Punjab in half; within months, an estimated 200,000 people were dead.
03Radcliffe burned his working papers before departing India, erasing the record of his deliberations.
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01The LHC's superconducting magnets operate at 1.9 Kelvin, colder than the cosmic microwave background.
02On July 4, 2012, CERN announced the Higgs boson's discovery to a room where Peter Higgs wept.
03Each proton beam carries the kinetic energy equivalent of a 400-tonne train at 150 km/h.
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01Dunant witnessed 40,000 casualties and organized local women using the cry 'Tutti fratelli' — all brothers.
02His 1862 memoir 'A Memory of Solferino' directly inspired the Geneva Convention of 1864.
03Dunant won the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901 — and was living in a poorhouse charity ward when he got the news.
gnostek
01The Tate Modern, MoMA, and the Pompidou each own at least one tin.
02Some tins have expanded over decades, suggesting fermentation is still occurring inside.
03Manzoni produced them in two months; he died of a heart attack at age 29, two years later.