› added 10 years ago

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TIL: In 1971, Hunter S Thompson ran for Sheriff of Aspen. His campaign included replacing the streets with grass, allowing controlled drug sales, and renaming Aspen “Fat City”. His candidacy was so strong that the other two candidates colluded in order to stop him from winning.

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via reddit.com

xm9D TIL in 1975 a Missouri construction worker heard of a device pitched to the US Army that would steer the rear wheels of a vehicle if the front axle broke. He modified it to work permanently and installed it on his 1974 Ford F-250, called it ‘Bigfoot’, and thus created the monster truck.
4XlpX TIL of the condition Hikikomori which is seen among the youth of Japan and is also seen in UK, US, etc. Hikikomoris are reclusive adolescents or adults who withdraw from society and seek extreme degrees of isolation and confinement. It is estimated that there are about a million hikikomoris in Japan
0ME1 TIL the Million Program is an ambitious public housing initiative implemented in Sweden between 1965 and 1974. Aiming to give everyone a home at a reasonable price, it was the most ambitious building program in the world – adding one million new homes in a nation with a population of eight million.
jaZN TIL that a thread on Apple forums suggests that Macbooks are causing immense eyestrain to a certain percentage of the population and nobody knows why. The thread is 8 years old and 160 pages long and Apple is refusing to admit the problem.
7mkL TIL in 2007 a German pensioner was given a prison term of five months for, amongst other things, training his dog ‘Adolf’ to raise his right paw in a Nazi salute every time the command “Heil Hitler!” was uttered