› added 9 years ago

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TIL that North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un was elected with 100% of the votes. The ballot listed only him. Citizens are allowed to cross out his name and write in a new one, but they must step outside the election booth to do so, and write down the new name in front of election officials.

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via reddit.com

oGR7 TIL that Leonardo da Vinci created plans for a “mechanized knight,” - a robot-like creation reliant on a system of pulleys. When these plans were found almost 500 years later and built according to Leonardo’s specifications, the design worked perfectly.
pGJe TIL that an Olympic rower named Henry Pearce stopped mid-race to allow ducklings to pass by him and he still won the race.
a8rb0 TIL A man in India carved a 110 meter-long (360 ft), 9.1 meter-wide (30 ft) and 7.7 meter-deep (25 ft) path through a ridge of hills using only a hammer and a chisel. After 22 years of work, he shortened travel distance from 34 miles to 9 miles.
wX6P TIL that it rained nearly continually in California from Christmas Eve 1861 through the end of January 1862, destroying nearly ¼ of the property in the state, turning the Central Valley into an inland sea, and bankrupting the state
loAdV TIL in 1958, Frank Herbert was talking with his friend from the Quileute tribe, whose lands were being destroyed due to excessive logging. The man said white people were "gonna turn this whole planet into a wasteland, just like North Africa." This inspired Herbert to write Dune.