› added 8 years ago

827

Today I learned that there is a self mummification practice, in which extreme ascetics commit suicide over ten years with the goal of turning their own body into a mummy as a sign of spiritual enlightenment.

Read more io9.gizmodo.com

via reddit.com

dJAZ TIL Jesse James once gave a widow he was staying with $1400 to pay off a debt collector. He told her to give him the money and get a receipt. James then hid and waited for the debt collector to leave, and then robbed the man as he left the widow’s home.
JYNn8 TIL that women in the Dani tribe in Indonesia amputate a part of their fingers to grieve a loved one's death. It’s believed finger cutting keeps the deceased person’s restless spirit away, as well as symbolising the pain of bereavement.
lv5A TIL “lb” is descended from the Roman libra (hence the abbreviation “lb”); the name pound is a Germanic adaptation of the Latin phrase libra pondo, ‘a pound by weight’. And that’s why “pound” is abbreviated as “lb”.
WNZ8 TIL last September an 8 year old Yemenese girl died from traumatic sexual injuries on her wedding night. Her “husband” was 40.
ANMex TIL Tony's Chocolate bars are unequally divided by design to represent the inequality in profits within the chocolate industry. The chunks to the bottom left corner of the bar represent Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo+Benin, Nigeria, & Cameroon + the Gulf of Guinea, source of 60% world cocoa supply.