› added 11 years ago

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TIL The Commission on Presidential debates was founded by both Republican and Democratic parties. It has historically kept 3rd party candidates from getting facetime with ‘their’ audiences

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Y70od TIL Sparrow Force, a mostly Australian WW 2 unit, was stranded for 10 months on a Japanese-held island, fighting against 100-to-1 odds, with no radio for most of that time. A radio was improvised & sent, “Force intact. Still fighting. Badly need boots, quinine, money, and Tommy-gun ammunition.”
4wmJ TIL in the 1970’s, a plane carrying 6,000lbs. of marijuana crashed in a remote area of Yosemite National Park. Local mountaineers, rock climbers, hippies, and drug dealers made excursions to the area to take as much product as they could, all while the US government tried to secure the drugs.
KGn6 TIL one of the Congressional originators of the House Committee on Un-American Activities was a Soviet spy
Z8Mg4 TIL Hitchens's Razor: "What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence," a dictum coined by antitheist Christopher Hitchens.
QN7jE TIL James Caan Once Had Joe Pesci Beaten Up In 'Mafia Style Hit' Over Unpaid Hotel Bill