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TIL According to North Korean state media, Kim Jong II was born under a double rainbow on a sacred mountain. And before his death, the skies glowed red and Mount Paektu and the impenetrable sheet of ice at the heart of the volcano cracked.

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X0PYP TIL that poet and cartoonist Shel Silverstein (A Light in the Attic, The Giving Tree) was also a frequent writer and illustrator for Playboy. His biographer believes he had sex with hundreds or thousands of women over the course of many visits to the Playboy mansion.
x6nNo TIL in 2012, a car repair shop owner placed a Volvo on a tiny, man-made island in an Illinois lake. It has since become known as "Volvo Island," and is the island's sole occupant.
OoLNa TIL in the 1930s a DuPont chemist found that crystals of a substance called PTC (phenylthiocarbamide) tasted very bitter to some but were tasteless to others (about 75% taste bitterness). Researchers found three variants in a gene called TAS2R38. Two copies of this variant make you non-taster.
nkMB TIL a 2005 study taught capuchin monkeys the value of money using small silver coins. During one experiment, a monkey was observed trading a coin for sex. The monkey who received the coin promptly traded it for a grape.
M74eK TIL that 135 candidates qualified to run for governor in the 2003 California recall election. This included former child star Gary Coleman, Arianna Huffington (who later co-founded Huffpost), adult film actress Mary Carey, and (winner) Arnold Schwarzenegger