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TIL Carl Sagan was brought in to mediate an argument between Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke about what the aliens should look like at the end of “2001: A Space Odyssey.” Sagan suggested to not show them at all.

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VNLm TIL that an archaeologist and biblical scholar suggested that Jesus is a mushroom. “The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross argued that Jesus in the Gospels was in fact a code for a type of hallucinogen, the Amanita muscaria, and that Christianity was the product of an ancient ‘sex-and-mushroom’ cult.”
Eg6wd TIL Jack Parsons, a pioneer rocket engineer and inventor of the rocket engines later used in the apollo program was also a passionate occultist. One of his rituals, aimed to summon a sex goddess involved Parsons jerking off to magical tablets while listening to a violin concerto
b6Y57 TIL South Korea has been in the process of changing Capital city from Seoul to newly built Sejong since 2007. The construction of the city is expected to be completed in 2030.
R70Rj TIL Bolivia became landlocked in 1904 after losing the War of the Pacific. However, the country still observes the Day of the Sea, "where politicians give speeches and people listen to the recorded sound of seagulls."
yQy9J TIL that chemistry graduate student Barry Kidston gave himself Parkinson's disease after ingesting a compound he synthesized for a legal high. An impurity he neglected is toxic to dopamine neurons, which is responsible for the effect. He was treated, but died of a cocaine overdose 18 months later.