› added 11 months ago

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TIL of the Christmas Eve tradition of 'Burning the Ashen Faggot'. Probably pagan in origin, and held in Devon, UK and surrounding counties, the ceremony involves the assembly of a large bundle of ash sticks bound with bands. When each band burns through a drink of cider is taken.

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4Al6 TIL: In a 2006 investigation, roughly 250 members of the US Defense Department were found to have purchased child pornography. The Pentagon refused to investigate.
r07x TIL in 1986 to bypass Japanese censorship laws on depictions of sexual intercourse Toshio Maeda created “tentacle sex” leading to the large number of works today with tentacles inplace of male genitals.
4XvoR TIL about Nüshu, a woman-only Chinese script. Woman used it to write letters, poetry, and even autobiographies. Due to men being unable to read it, woman who knew Nüshu arguably had far more intellectual freedom.
rR4Y4 TIL we tried fracking with nukes in the 60s, and only stopped because the gas was too radioactive to use
vL48 TIL that height has a more important effect on earnings than gender.