› added 6 months ago

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TIL about The Great Tantra Challenge, a live event in which Sanal Edamaruku, an Indian skeptic, challenged a tantrik to kill him with only magic. After multiple failed attempts, the tantrik claimed Sanal was under the protection of a powerful god, to which Sanal replied that he was an atheist.

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J5yk TIL in 1962 Pres. Kennedy invited 49 Nobel Laureates for dinner at the White House. Kennedy remarked, “I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.”
b9MZN TIL about Susan Sweney; a British pro-Nazi broadcaster in WWII, born in India. She was a Fascist, rumored Lesbian, and severe alcoholic. She survived two shipwrecks during WWII and was imprisoned by both Germany and Britain. Years later, she worked on a farm, and a pet shop in England.
p0NQ TIL: Rather than building up, millionaires in central London are building down, creating mega-basements. Nicknamed “iceberg homes” because there’s more square footage under the ground than above.
jN9eM TIL that Child Pornography in Japan was First Made Illegal in June of 2014. A 1-Year Grace Period of Lax Enforcement Followed.
4v16 TIL for Yao Ming’s first game in Miami in 2002, the Heat gave out 8,000 fortune cookies as a promotion for the game. Yao did not take offense because he had never seen a fortune cookie in China and assumed it was an American invention.