› added 8 years ago

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TIL that when one fails the British/Dutch navies’ Submarine Command Course (“The Perisher”), he is not told yet, but his bag is packed for him. When a boat/helicopter is ready the sailor is told of his failure, given a bottle of whisky, and immediately goes. He can never serve in a submarine again.

xJKD TIL Christine Maggiore was an activist with HIV who said it didn’t cause AIDS. She convinced thousands of people not to test for AIDS and to have unprotected sex. When she got pregnant she didn’t use medication to prevent the risk of transmission; her daughter died at age 3. Maggiore died of AIDS.
epn74 TIL in 2006, a mother and son were convicted of trying to extort money from Cracker Barrel by claiming they found a dead mouse in her soup. Charges were filed after a necropsy showed the mouse had no soup in its lungs and had not been cooked, signs that it was dropped into the soup after its death.
XEkaE TIL of Lucy, a chimpanzee who was raised to believe she was human. She learned to sign over 250 words and some of her hobbies included drinking gin, browsing Playgirl magazines, and masturbating using a vacuum cleaner.
OZwe TIL in 1996 ASCAP threatened Girl Scouts of America for singing campfire songs without paying licensing fees.
xnZg TIL Olympic / sports doping offers an example of the Prisoner’s Dilemma: if no athlete dopes, nobody has an advantage; if one does, he/she benefits, but if all athletes dope then the advantage disappears and only the potential negatives (getting caught) remain.