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TIL that, despite their reputation as outlaws, pirates often operated on democratic principles. Everyone had to vote to make any major decisions, and even captains can be voted out. Pirates even had a system of workers compensation, with the crew maintaining a central fund to help injured pirates.

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J1ONl TIL There is a Guinness world record for the longest amount of time needed to create an official government. It is held by Belgium. It took Belgian politicians 541 days to form an official government.
ky81 TIL of a book entitled Atlanta Nights that was written by a group of sci-fi authors to be intentionally terrible as a test for the publisher PublishAmerica. It included a chapter containing computer generated random sentences and two word for word identical chapters. The publisher accepted it.
Z89ZD TIL the pinching force of "29 coconut crabs collected from the northern part of Okinawa Island" in Japan "ranged from 29.4 to 1765.2 N." "During our field study," write the researchers, "obtaining data for analysis was challenging, as the large claws of this crab pinched us on multiple occasions."
j6RPv TIL in 1976, an AP reporter, concerned about violent content in the arcade game Death Race and the effect it might have on players, wrote a widely disseminated article about it. Many at the game's manufacturer Exidy credited this and the negative coverage that began afterwards for increased sales.
Br0ed TIL the search for the Titanic was a cover story by the US Navy to recover two sunken nuclear submarines. However, the exploration finished with 12 days to spare in which they searched and found the Titanic.