› added 1 month ago

5

Today I learned that the Chinese government, despite being officially atheist, regulates the reincarnation of all Buddhist lamas and other religious figures. Reincarnated “Living Buddhas” must receive official approval, for which monasteries apply, before being recognized.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

wLe0o TIL the FBI mounted a 4-year-long undercover surveillance operation to nab Jared "The Subway Guy" Fogle, after he made some inappropriate comments about middle school girls to a female reporter
g8e9 TIL there were two versions of the Dennis the Menace comic, released at the same time, on different sides of the atlantic, by different authors, with no plagiarism involved.
nxwG TIL that if a song is close to 60 beats per minute and people start to breathe in time with the music it starts to slow their heart rate and make people feel more relaxed
QJ5o6 TIL of Sidney Lewis who joined the British Army at age 12, fought in the Battle of the Somme at age 13 but was sent home when his mother complained. He reenlisted without her knowledge, fought in Austria in 1918, and went on to fight in WWII, too, before retiring to run a pub.
a8kBN TIL about Kazuo Nagano, a Japanese fraudster murdered at home in front of 40 reporters after he was caught stealing 12 billion yen from the elderly. None intervened and the killer only got 10 years in prison.