Legal tender laws in the United States do not state that a private business, a person, or an organization must accept cash for payment, though it must be regarded as valid payment for debts when tendered to a creditor.

A duck's quack actually does echo,[446] although the echo may be difficult to hear for humans under some circumstances.[447] Despite this, a British panel show compiling interesting facts has been given the same name.

The death of the Greek philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria at the hands of a mob of Christian monks in 415 was mainly a result of her involvement in a bitter political feud between her close friend and student Orestes, the Roman prefect of Alexandria, and the bishop Cyril, not her religious views.[256] Her death also had nothing to do with the destruction of the Library of Alexandria,[257] which had likely already ceased to exist centuries before Hypatia was born.[257]

The Hopi people do in fact have a concept of time, and the Hopi language does have ways of expressing temporal concepts, though they are organized differently from those in Western languages.[73]

CLADISTICS ruined my life

Thinking about the Library of Alexandria.

Or at least the *myth* of the Library of Alexandria. You know, the greatest Library in the world, a monument of learning and reading and culture, cataclysmically destroyed in one terrible fire, knowledge lost forever, etc etc. It feels like this great tragedy of history, this terrible loss to humanity.

And it's not...true.

We actually have a lot of sources that show that the library had been in decline for a few centuries before then. Between some scholars getting exiled, a general diaspora of the scholars who remained, lack of funding, and diminishing prestige, it seems that the library's collection and scholarship was already greatly diminished, moved elsewhere.

It's true that Caesars troops did set fire to some ships in the harbor in 48BCE, and that fire did spread through the city. The Library was likely damaged, and some of its materials likely destroyed... but not completely. And it was repaired or rebuilt not long after. (One source even hints that it wasn't the library proper, but some warehouses owned by the library near the docks that burned.)

And the Library continued to exist for at least a few more centuries. Never at the same scale and prestige as it has at its height, but still there as a resource to scholars until at least the 270s CE.

But that's less exciting I guess. Less tragic, maybe. Less dramatic. That instead of it being a terrible accident, an act of the Gods, a perfect symbol at how the folly of war can tumble great monuments- Instead its just...about how underfunded Institutions and lack of support from the government towards academics will rot these great institutions slowly but surely.

And I wonder what it says about us that we find one of those stories more emotionally compelling and evocative than the other.

Dinosaurs didn't swim in the oceans or flew in the sky.

Nope. Dinosaurs from prehistoric times all lived predominantly on land, although the ones that evolved flight became birds, which are technically dinosaurs. But when we think of the big pterosaurs (“pterodactyls”) flying during the Age of Dinosaurs, realize that these were not dinosaurs, but a different archosaurian reptile (see above). Likewise, ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, mosasaurs, and all marine reptiles were not dinosaurs, either. The important point here is that not all prehistoric animals were dinosaurs. x

 If it ends in “-saurus,” it’s not always a dino.

“Saurus” comes from ancient Greek and means “lizard” (not dino). So, although Tyrannosaurus means “terrible lizard” and that is a dinosaur, “phytosaur” means “plant lizard,” and those guys weren’t a dinosaur or a crocodile (which it looked like, although it evolved completely separately from alligators and lizards ... and they didn’t even eat plants!). A phytosaur is a reptile, which is the point in the family tree it shares with dinosaurs. x

Evolution is not a progression from inferior to superior organisms, and it also does not necessarily result in an increase in complexity. Evolution through natural selection only causes organisms to become more fit for their environment.[495] A population can evolve to become simpler or to have a smaller genome,[496] and atavistic ancestral genetic traits can reappear after having been lost through evolutionary change in previous generations.[497] Biological devolution or de-evolution is a misnomer, not only because it implies that organisms can only evolve backward or forward, but also because it implies that evolution may cause organisms to evolve in the "wrong" direction.[498][499]

Ticks do not jump nor fall from trees onto their hosts. Instead, they lie in wait to grasp and climb onto any passing host or otherwise trace down hosts via, for example, olfactory stimuli, the host's body heat, or carbon dioxide in the host's breath.[468][469]

Earwigs are not known to purposely climb into external ear canals, though there have been anecdotal reports of earwigs being found in the ear.[462] The name may be a reference to the appearance of the hindwings, which are unique and distinctive among insects, and resemble a human ear when unfolded.[463][464]

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Although bananas contain naturally occurring radioactive isotopes, particularly potassium-40 (40K), which emit ionizing radiation when undergoing radioactive decay, the levels of such radiation are far too low to induce radiation poisoning, and bananas are not a radiation hazard. It would not be physically possible to eat enough bananas to cause radiation poisoning, as the radiation dose from bananas is non-cumulative.[656][657][658][659][660][661] (See also: Banana equivalent dose)

Although Phineas Gage's brain injuries, caused by a several-foot-long tamping rod driven completely through his skull, caused him to become temporarily disabled, fanciful descriptions of his "immoral behavior" in later life are without factual basis.[842]

The repeating decimal commonly written as 0.999… represents exactly the same quantity as the number one. Despite having the appearance of representing a smaller number, 0.999… is a symbol for the number 1 in exactly the same way that 0.333... is an equivalent notation for the number represented by the fraction 1⁄3.[796]

Scratched Teflon Pans are not a Health Hazard

When Teflon cookware becomes scratched, tiny particles of the coating might chip off. The Food and Drug Administration advises that the chips pose no health hazard when they pass through the body. PFOA is used to process Teflon. However, the Environment Protection Agency reports that Teflon doesn’t actually contain PFOA so there is no health hazard from using it. x

However, overheating (>260°C / 500°F) can release toxic fumes, no matter if scratched or not.

TIL of the Spoiler Paradox, a psychological phenomenon where being informed of how a story ends before experiencing it seems to increase the enjoyment of the story, rather than decrease it.

via beatlyzer.com

The onset of puberty is not beginning earlier than it did historically. The average onset of a child's growth spurt typically occurred between ages 10–12.[762] Menarche also occurred at a similar range as today, between 12–14 years of age. However, markers such as menarche may have experienced a retardation at the beginning of modern times due to a deterioration in living conditions and nutrition. In those situations, menarche was often delayed to 15 or 16 years of age.[763]