› added 2 months ago

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TIL there is a cult on the island of Vanuatu that worships “John Frum”, an unidentified WWII US airman who brought food and other cargo to the island, introducing himself as “John from America”

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via reddit.com

nApG TIL that during the making of ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou’ the Coen brothers had someone on set just to catch snakes using a golf club. When asked what to call somebody with this profession, he said 'an idiot.’
Wldd TIL of the “Broken Windows Theory” which states that maintaining and monitoring urban areas to prevent small crimes, such as vandalism, helps to create an atmosphere of order and lawfulness - thereby preventing more serious crimes from happening
6gpZ TIL that for a brief time, the US Playing Card Company released a 65 card deck that included a fifth suit, a Green Eagle, that was ranked higher than spades.
ep7Gn TIL about Don Arrigo Beccari, a WW2 Catholic Priest, who was responsible for smuggling 120 Jewish children to safety, despite intense Nazi surveillance. When the Nazis captured him and tortured him for months, he still kept quiet. He was recognized as Righteous Among the Nations in 1964.
RGOw TIL Saddam Hussein kept a torture chamber in the basement of the Iraqi mission on the Upper East Side of NYC across the street from Michael Bloomberg’s house. People who died there had their bodies mailed back to Iraq in diplomatic shipments.