› added 12 years ago

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TIL that the FBI issues “National Security Letters” (NSL) which when received, includes a standing gag order that prevents the recipient from talking about the letter to anyone even their own attorney. These letters are issues by the FBI without court oversight.

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1aoZr TIL about Henry VIII's "eavesdrop" figures: he has creepy statues built onto ceiling beams to warn against gossip or dissension and foster paranoia
neVrY TIL that the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Jeannette Rankin was the only member of the US congress voted AGAINST going to war with Japan. "As a woman, I can't go to war," she said, "and I refuse to send anyone else."
7M5O TIL After working with Tom Cruise on the movie Collateral, Jada Pinkett, together with her husband Will Smith, donated $20.000 to a scientology homeschooling program and funded a scientology-affiliated private elementary school.
N751b TIL that Liberal, Missouri was founded as an atheist utopia. Residents published recruitment ads claiming "it was the only town of its size in the US without a priest, preacher, church, saloon, God, Jesus, Hell, or Devil." The founder, George Walser, later converted to Christianity.
Oo9a6 TIL about Chai Ling, a student leader during the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre. She advocated to continue protesting until a bloodshed would change China, but when interviewed before the incident about whether she herself would attend the protests, she answered no, cause she wanted to live.