› added 4 years ago

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TIL of the anthropic principle: the idea that any data we collect about the universe is filtered by the fact that, in order for it to be observable in the first place, it must be compatible with the conscious thinking life that observes it. We see, only because we are in a universe that can be seen.

KOgBQ TIL That as McDonald's came to the former Communist nations of Eastern Europe, it became a point of national pride to have one, even being included in football chants to taunt those countries who didn't yet have a McDonalds.
BkwD TIL that in 1968, the first instance on US television of physical contact between a black man (Harry Bellafonte) and a white woman (Petula Clark, who took hold of his arm when signing) made it to the screen only because Clark and her husband, destroyed all the takes where the contact did not occur.
KNRJ TIL - Dubai is littered with abandoned supercars due to Sharia law. Late payments are punishable by law.
LkBoP TIL that tens to hundreds of thousands of animals are being slaughtered in Gadhimai festival, known as world's largest animal sacrifice ritual, in Nepal despite ban from the authorities and protests from animal right activists. The scale of the slaughter, however, has decreased sharply over time.
4Xobb TIL there once existed the Silver Republican Party, a US political party that split from the Republican Party in the 1890s over the issues of bimetallism and free silver. It disbanded in the early 1900s and most of its members joined the GOP, but some went to the Democrats.