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TIL for several years the CIA paid sex workers to bring men back to a “safehouse” brothel so they could secretly dose them with LSD and watch what happened through a two-way mirror in an effort to find a mind control drug.

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nWBpb TIL messenger pigeons only fly home to where they were born and pampered. To keep them loyal, they were isolated in cages while traveling. Releasing them with a message meant they'd rush back to their luxury life. They acted as a speedy, one-way messaging service.
b60E9 TIL that the Danish word for "Pimp" is "Alfons," after the protagonist in the play Monsieur Alphonse by Alexandre Dumas, fils. As a result, although "Alfons" is the name of popular children's book character, the name remains very rare. As of 2016, there were only 8 people named "Alfons" in Denmark.
wvKo TIL of the US Supreme Court decision Buck v. Bell where the Court approved the practice of forced sterilization of citizens the state deemed unfit, including the intellectually disabled, in order to to improve the human race by eliminating “defectives” from the gene pool.
MeQdb TIL in 2000 Portugal decriminalized ALL drugs. If police find someone w/a supply larger than 10 days worth of personal use they aren’t arrested but brought before a “dissuasion panel” made up of experts who evaluate the person & prescribe treatment. both HIV infections & deaths by OD have plummeted.
e0dlD TIL that aluminium weighs more than concrete per volume (1m3)