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189

TIL that in a small town in california, a dog ran for mayor and won

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neBbB TIL from the 1930’s to the 50’s, film studios used pure white asbestos fibers to replicate the look of snow. It was used in ‘The Wizard of Oz’ and the famous snow scene at the end of Bing Crosby’s ‘White Christmas.’ Brands of asbestos fake snow included ‘White Magic’ ‘Snow Drift’ and ‘Pure White.’
neMM9 TIL that Lima is the second largest desert city after Cairo. The city faces acute water shortage due to very low precipitation. To solve their water shortage issues, the locals use meshed fog catchers made of bamboo frames to harvest water from the thick sea fog that covers Lima all year round.
WkZbo TIL the term "Aryan" has nothing to do with Germans, instead it refers to the Indo-Iranian people who can be found living from the Levant to Northern India, and it's where the name of the country "Iran" is derived from
l70y1 TIL about Pheasant Island, the smallest condominium in the world which voluntarily changes hands between France and Spain every 6 months
YLdG TIL in 1946, during a land survey of Sichuan province in China, a forester encountered a tree he’d never seen before, so took a sample. He came to find it was as yet unknown to science, only previously existing as a fossil. It came to be known as the ‘Dawn Redwood’.