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TIL Henry Ford bought an area of Brazilian rainforest the size of Connecticut to build 'Fordlandia', the greatest rubber plantation known to man, where alcohol, women and football were banned. It produced almost no rubber, immediately descended into rioting and disease, and was abandoned

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YOpB TIL: During the Joseon Dynasty the Koreans built Turtle Ships with Dragon Heads and spit out flames to scare the Japanese. The ship was also considered almost indestructible during that time.
LYDp TIL Russian cosmonauts carried a convertible shotgun which doubled as an axe and machete into space. The shotgun was kept to kill bears in case the crew landed in a remote area in the Taiga region of Russia.
VMPE0 TIL about the Doctors' Riot of 1788, which began after a medical student waved a dissected arm out the window at a boy who's mother had recently died and told him the arm belonged to her.
OGn5X TIL that Zimbabwe's health minister complained that the condoms made in China were too small for its men. The Chinese condom manufacturer subsequently said it planned on making its exports in different sizes after doing "some surveys on users’ data in the region".
MelaB TIL when Japan's first railway was introduced, the USA, France, and the UK bid to build the system, with the UK winning. The railways they set up were left-side running, and that was later adopted by Japanese cars. Today, Japan is one of the only non-Commonwealth countries with left-side driving