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TIL that it used to be common for politicians to bribe voters with booze. It was called "swilling the planters with bumbo"

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neOwG TIL that the Standard Kilogram, a cylinder of platinum that used to be the definition of a kilogram, has been mysteriously getting lighter
N6K8 TIL there is a city in Russia where the pollution is so severe that mining the topsoil is now economically feasible because it contains so many heavy metals.
Wk4Zd TIL that in November of 1999, Kevin Smith attended a protest against his own movie: "Dogma." He even made it onto the local news, when the on-the-scene reporter asked him (not knowing it it was him) his thoughts on the movie. He responded: "I don't know, but I've been told, 'not good.'"
oRBPK TIL Yuri Knorozov, a Soviet Officer in the Second World War, went on to become essential in the deciphering of Maya hieroglyphics after finding a book in the German National Library during the end of the war, and taking the statement that "Maya Hieroglyphics were indecipherable" personally.
7dQx TIL Australia’s 17th Prime Minister Harold Holt went for a swim at beach and was never seen again