› added 5 years ago

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TIL Sammy Hagar of Van Halen once started his own travel agency so his band could save on touring costs

VBGPZ TIL Nauru has the highest obesity rate in the world (94.5% overweight, 71.7% obese), caused by the rapid adoption of Western diets after the phosphate mining boom. Traditional diets of fresh fish and vegetables were replaced by processed foods—with devastating health effects.
DdZY TIL In 1912 three men set out to recover emperor penguin eggs from Antarctica. It was so cold one man’s teeth chattered so violently that they shattered. When he returned to the UK the National History Museum refused to accept the eggs.
WkRnY TIL Kazuo Nagano, a fraudulent businessman, was assassinated in front of at least 30 press members. The two assassins announced their intentions beforehand and then slashed Nagano with Bayonets multiple times. The whole ordeal was broadcasted multiple times including much of the gore.
MeLJ7 TIL of Inverted Totalitarianism. Not found in a demagogue but in the faceless anonymity of the corporate state. It pays outward fealty to the facade of electoral politics, the Constitution, freedom of the press etc., but it has seized all of the mechanisms of power rendering the citizen impotent.
mxRxY TIL when the US was pressured by China not to sell F-20 fighters to Taiwan, the US allowed General Dynamics to work with Taiwan to jointly develop a comparable fighter, which was later named F-CK-1. (Yes, it's named after the Taiwanese president who initiated the project, but I'm sure r/theyknew!)