› added 9 years ago

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TIL The Three Alls Policy was a Japanese scorched earth policy adopted in China during World War II, the three “alls” being “kill all, burn all, loot all.” The Policy, sanctioned by Emperor Hirohito himself, was responsible for the deaths of “more than 2.7 million” Chinese civilians.

1an97 TIL Draconian laws are named after the 1st Greek legislator, Draco, who meted out severe punishment for very minor offenses. These included enforced slavery for any debtor whose status was lower than that of his creditor and the death sentence for stealing a cabbage.
8eyl8 TIL Split-Brain Experiments by Sperry and Gazzaniga showed in patients with severed corpus callosums (to treat severe epilepsy), the two hemispheres were unable to communicate. The experiment showed consciousness can “split” into two separate streams within the same person.
N8OJ TIL Transmutation (turning one substance into another by chemical reaction, like in alchemy) is real. You can turn lead into gold with enough nuclear chemistry. But it would be a very tiny amount of gold and spent more money to make it than what it’s worth.
J17jl TIL - The Onion submitted a 23-page Amicus Curiae brief to the US Supreme Court in 2022 for the case Novak v. City of Parma, Ohio, in support of the protection of parody as free-speech. In the text, The Onion openly parodies the Court and says it is "staffed entirely by total Latin dorks".
OKo4 TIL that Spanish is Louis C.K.’s first language. He began to learn English when he moved to the U.S. at age seven