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TIL Japanese Yakuza have a unique form of extortion known as sōkaiya. Instead of harassing small businesses for protection money, the yakuza harasses the stockholder meetings of large corporations.

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QNnG9 TIL about the history of the Ho Chi Minh trail during Vietnam War
J1OO4 TIL Before 9/11, the deadliest building collapse since the Civil War was the Hyatt Regency Walkway Collapse, which killed 114 people and whose chief cause were rods only rated to handle 30% of the weight the walkway was designed for snapped and fell on a High School Reunion Tea Dance
4k48a TIL that fuzzy ants are actually wasps, but are still called ants.
R7jD4 TIL in the midnight of Dec 29, 2011 Samoa loses a day and jumps forward in time to Dec. 31, 2011 without experiencing Dec 30 as they move westward of international dateline. The switch was made to improve ties with major trade partners in Australia and New Zealand.
VMpMm TIL The Russian city of Blagoveshchensk, population 220,000, looks over the river at the Chinese city of Heihe, home to almost 2 million. They form a free trade zone where Russians cross into China to go on shopping trips, while Chinese tourists enter Blagoveshchensk daily to take city tours