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TIL the CIA paid magician John Mulholland $3,000 to write a spy manual of trickery and deception as part of the top-secret MKUltra project, a CIA program that investigated mind control. Mulholland’s 1953 guide was supposed to be destroyed in the 1970s but an archived copy reappeared decades later.

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via reddit.com

7rV5r TIL J.K. Simmons, who played music teacher Terence Fletcher in “Whiplash”, has a music degree from the University of Montana, with a major in voice and minors in composing and conducting.
7LVZ TIL serial killer Rodney Alcala acted as his own attorney in his trial. For five hours he interrogated himself on the witness stand, asking questions addressed to “Mr. Alcala” in a deep voice and answering them in his normal voice.
eG64 TIL that the German word for birth control pills is antibabypille.
ebjk TIL that in 1940 the first British paratroops were trained by stunt men because parachuting was rare and considered a “circus stunt”
EgDmp TIL about Hiranyakashipu. A asura king from Hindu mythology who was blessed to be unkillable by deva, human or animal, at day or night, indoors or outdoors, on earth or space or by any weapon. He was killed by an incarnation of Vishnu who managed to kill him without violating his blessing.