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TIL that in 2017, church leaders in Papua New Guinea were concerned by a report that the Governor-General had been requested to sign 666 writs for an upcoming election. They were reassured by the Electoral Commissioner that the number merely reflected 6 copies of each writ for 111 electorates

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nWnVd TIL that in 1999 a Qantas 747 "crashed" on landing and then Qantas paid a huge amount of money to repair the plane so it wouldn't be reported as a hull loss accident.
LkWmQ TIL that Stephen Fry, renowned UK commentator and comedian, purchased a London cab so that he could use bus and taxi lanes to efficiently drive around London
R78k1 Today I learned that the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa was so loud it ruptured eardrums of people 40 miles away, travelled around the world four times, and was clearly heard 3,000 miles away.
EgOPw TIL that in some parts of Ruhr region (Germany) the ground has sunk by up to 30m (12m in average) due to exzessive mining in the region. The homes of millions of people would be flooded if the pumps were stopped to keep the groundwater level artificially low. These pumps have to pump forever.
yQP5X TIL the world's largest dam is so big that NASA scientists calculated that shift of water mass stored by the dams would slow down earth's rotation and increase the length of the earth's day by 0.06 microseconds.