› added 7 years ago

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TIL of Genie Wiley, a girl who was raised in a dark isolated room with no indication of an outside world for the first 13 years of her life, her father was incredibly abusive, and when authorities rescued her she couldn't speak at all and only made infantile noises.

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ARp7 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.
rN1oy TIL That the TOR Network was created by the United States Naval Research Laboratory to protect American Intelligence communications.
wpwY TIL that while abundant in the universe, Helium is a finite resource on Earth and cannot be manufactured. Its use in MRI’s means a shortage could seriously affect access to this life saving technology.
vPbK7 TIL Rick James & Neil Young were in a band together (the Mynah Birds). A 16yo James was in Canada avoiding military duty, & got saved from a fight by Levon Helm, who introduced him to the music scene. He only played w/ Young for 6 months, til their crooked manager ratted out James, who was jailed
b6kAp TIL Van Halen's David Lee Roth wrote the song "Panama" (which is about a fast car) as a response to being accused of only writing about women, parties, and fast cars. He realized he had never written a song about a fast car, so he wrote one.