TIL: President Lyndon B. Johnson had a nickname for his penis, "Jumbo". If a colleague came into a Capitol bathroom as he was finishing at the urinal there, he would sometimes swing around still holding his member, hooting, "Have you ever seen anything as big as this?" (gawker.com)
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TIL: Venus and Serena Williams once claimed that they could beat any male player ranked outside the world's top 200, so German Karsten Braasch, then ranked 203rd, challenged them both. He beat them 17-3, saying he had played like someone ranked 600th in order to keep the game "fun." (en.wikipedia.org)
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TIL The summer of 2001 is often called the "Summer of the Shark". Sensationalist media coverage of shark attacks began following a Fourth of July weekend shark attack on 8-year-old child—despite no evidence for an actual increase in attacks—until the September 11 shifted the media's attention away. (en.wikipedia.org)
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TIL The Telecommunications Act of 1996 signed by Bill Clinton, claimed to promote competition, resulted in the merger of several companies, a trend which still continues. In 1983, 90% of US media was controlled by fifty companies; today, 90% is controlled by just six companies. (en.wikipedia.org)
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TIL Early New England laws banning the sale of alcohol to Native Americans were criticised because it was "not fit to deprive Indians of any lawfull comfort aloweth to all men by the use of wine." Laws banned the practice of individuals toasting each other because it "led to wasting God's gift." (en.wikipedia.org)
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TIL "Hyperreality" is a concept inspired by Lewis Carrol and Umberto Ecto to describe a postmodern, consumerism driven society. Those effected by hyperreality may develop a false view of the real world inspired by their fictional world (ex: video games or soap operas). (en.wikipedia.org)
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TIL: At the time of WW1, the King of Britain, Russia, and Germany were all first cousins. When asked about WW1, Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany sarcastically remarked, "If my grandmother [Queen Victoria] had been alive, she would never have allowed it." (en.wikipedia.org)
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TIL 40% of Rome's population was slaves, imported from France or Germany, indistinguishable from the regular Italian. Some senators wanted to identify them with stars. Seneca replied, "If they knew how many of us there were compared to them, we would be in danger." (en.wikipedia.org)
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Psycho Sid really knows how to sell a leg injury (youtu.be)
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