› added 3 years ago

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TIL Richard Scrushy, charged with masterminding $2.7 billion fraud case, came up with a novel strategy: "[play] the religion card" and become a televangelist to curry favor with jurors (the trial was held in Alabama). He was acquitted of all charges.

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via reddit.com

4OOX TIL Roman philosopher Lucius Annaeus Seneca was sentenced to suicide by Roman emperor Nero. Due to his old age and diet he failed to bleed to death after severing his veins. He then, to no avail, attempted to consume poison. Finally, he suffocated during a steam bath meant to quicken blood loss.
oJYA TIL that CDC has an actual “Zombie Plan” in place. It was started as a joke campaign, but actually evolved into real training and countermeasures because “if you’re well equipped to deal with a zombie apocalypse you will be prepared for a hurricane, pandemic, earthquake, or terrorist attack.”
wX17 TIL Ethiopians are genetically 62% white and only 24% black and also part Asian.
4v5 TIL that Switzerland once accidentally invaded Lichtenstein
RGd9 TIL the stunt coordinator of Deliverance felt a canoe scene with a dummy in it looked too phony. After reshooting the scene with himself in the canoe, Burt Reynolds, coughing up water and nursing a broken coccyx, asked how the scene looked. The director responded, “like a canoe with a dummy in it.”