› added 8 years ago

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TIL that Shareef Cousin, a 16 year old who was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death (after much prosecutorial misconduct) for a murder he didn’t commit, lost his civil suit against the police and D.A. on the basis that prosecutors have absolute immunity.

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via reddit.com

J1Bk TIL: The world’s smallest hard drive is only 96 atoms big.
WmeY TIL John Carpenter’s “The Thing” was poorly received after its 1982 opening, with reviewers calling it “the quintessential moron movie of the 80s” and “sacrificing everything at the altar of gore”. The film has been reappraised substantially since then.
aw7vM TIL the bikini was named after a Pacific island the United States bombed during nuclear testing nuclear testing, displacing the entire population and rendering the island uninhabitable. The bikini was supposed to have the same "explosive" effect on men who saw women wearing it.
XEgJE TIL North America's Lake Superior contains 10 percent of the world's surface freshwater and holds the remains of 6,000 shipwrecks
x6BN1 TIL about the Italian standard LMG during WW2, designed for alpine climate but used in deserts, it had a violent recoil, clips only held 20 rounds, they had to be oiled before they were inserted, it frequently overheated and exploded, and had a rate of fire comparable to a semi-automatic rifle.