› added 13 years ago

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TIL During the Middle Ages the Church tolerated prostitution because it helped to prevent rape, sodomy, and masturbation, which it saw as worse

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Qmwa TIL that long before creating Star Trek, 26-year-old Gene Roddenberry was a co-pilot aboard a Pan Am plane that crashed in the Syrian Desert. With several broken ribs, he helped save 22 people and eventually led them to safety.
OJj1 TIL 35% of Saudi women in prison are there because no male relative will collect them
k4Z1 TIL that between 1960 and 1977, the secret number authorizing US presidents to launch nuclear missiles was 00000000.
lKg7 TIL that one unofficial method of defending merchant vessels against Somali pirates is to blast Britney Spears music. And it has been reported to be effective.
56r TIL during WWII, 12000 conscientious objectors served the government without pay. Their many jobs included smokejumping into forest fires, being human test subjects, and working at mental hospitals, where their pacifist approach revolutionized the way mental patients were treated.