› added 11 years ago

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TIL There is a group called the Patriot Guard which formed to protect people from the Westboro Baptist Church.

Read more patriotguardks.org

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gM9JX TIL Socrates thought that the invention of writing would negatively affect peoples' memory, since people could just write things down instead of having to remember them.
Me6Qm TIL The floor plans of MI6 (British Secret Intelligence Service) headquarters in London were 'lost' by building contractors during refurbishment. The documents held sensitive information on the layout, including entry and exit points. Most documents (but not all) were later recovered.
Ool97 TIL one of the first mass produced Treadmills were by Sir William Cubitt in 1818, who used it to torture inmates in jails of England. It consisted of 24 inmates side by side, with partitions. This pointless labor was meant to deter poor people from committing crimes to just get in jail for shelter.
Me97m TIL that President Nixon was actually against the idea of Amtrak. The only reason he signed the 1970 Railpax legislation, bringing it into existence, was because the congressional aides that drafted it told him Amtrak wouldn't survive for more than 5 years.
80rG TIL Mordechai Vanunu, a nuclear technician in Israel and anti WMD activist leaked a photograph to the British press of evidence Israel had nuclear weapons. He was later tracked by Mossad, drugged, bound, thrown in a bag and renditioned to Israel for trial.