› added 5 years ago

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TIL that Charles Taylor, a brutal Liberian warlord currently in prison for war crimes won the 1997 Liberian election with the slogan: "He killed my ma, he killed my pa, but I will vote for him."

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ElVo TIL that in 1936 a rare million-dollar Stradivarius violin got stolen from virtuoso Hall Huberman. The thief, a café musician named Julian Altman, became famous and performed for presidents. 49 years after the theft, he confessed to the theft on his deathbed and his wife received $263k finder’s fee.
7lvM TIL that in December 2012 a complex systems scientist walked up to the podium at the American Geophysics Union to present a paper. The paper was titled, “Is Earth Fucked?” His answer was: “Yeah. Pretty much.”
e0ng5 TIL The band Oasis, after having technical difficulties at a large gig, issued refund checks with the bands branding on hoping fans would keep them as collectibles instead of cashing them in; it worked
A4x4 TIL: Edgar Allen Poe’s character Richard Parker who is eaten in a shipwreck in his 1838 book. In 1884 an English ship sinks and the name of the boy who is eaten is Richard Parker.
MeGB TIL that if a body of water is labeled a sea, then international traffic must be allowed through it; if it’s a lake, then there is no such requirement. This has caused disputes regarding the Caspian Sea, which is called a sea but is technically a lake