› added 11 years ago

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TIL India is launching its mass electronic surveillance program in 2014. It will give 9 Indian govt. agencies—incl. the tax dept—the power to access, in real-time, phone conversations, text, emails, web search data & social media activity WITHOUT the approval of the courts or parliament.

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0wjMN TIL Putting spaces between written words wasn't a thing until the 7th Century and didn't become popular in Europe for another few hundred years (Romanauthorsthoughtyoucouldjustfigureitoutfromcontext)
mx9Gx TIL about Emma Willard, a women’s rights activist who dedicated her life to education and founded the first school for women’s higher education in 1821.
JYQZ8 TIL that boxer Jimmy Doyle, who died fighting Sugar Ray Robinson for the Welterweight title in 1947, challenged Robinson to the fight in order to buy his mother a house. After Doyle's death, Robinson gave the earnings from his next four fights to Doyle's mother so she could buy that house.
MePVb TIL Las Vegas casino mogul Steve Wynn's daughter Kevin was kidnapped from her home in 1993 with a $2.5 million ransom requested for her return. Instead of reporting the crime, Wynn quickly arranged delivery of $1.4 million in cash from the vault of the Mirage. She was returned unharmed.
NXnke TIL of the Bal des Ardents, a masquerade ball in which the king and some noble dancers dressed in wild man costumes and accidentally got set on fire by the king's drunk brother. The only dancers who survived are one who jumped into a washtub and the king, after a duchess threw her skirt over him.