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#436 The French writer Nicolas Chamfort's attempted suicide turned very gruesome:

Unable to tolerate the prospect of being imprisoned once more, in September 1793 he locked himself into his office and shot himself in the face. The pistol malfunctioned and he did not die even though he shot off his nose and part of his jaw. He then repeatedly stabbed his neck with a paper cutter, but failed to cut an artery. He finally used the paper cutter to stab himself in the chest. He dictated to those who came to arrest him the well-known declaration [...] "I, Sebastien-Roch Nicolas de Chamfort, hereby declare my wish to die a free man rather than to continue to live as a slave in a prison") which he signed in a firm hand and in his own blood. His butler found him unconscious in a pool of blood. From then until his death at Paris the following year, he suffered intensely and was attended to by a gendarme, whom he paid a crown a day.

 
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#437 Google Maps is different depending on location - mainly so disputed areas/borders are shown according to local laws or claims.
For example an Indian person will see all of Kashmir as Indian with no disputed borders.

 
Who said Ed Gein couldn't be an artist? They all did, now look at them, all lined up on my bookshelf.
 
Today I learned that

"in 1187 Sigtuna was attacked and pillaged by raiders from across the Baltic Sea, possibly Karelians,[7][8] Curonian and/or Estonian (Oeselian) raiders.[9][10]"


I didn't know that Vikings got raided back. Was that a common thing?
 
Those Curonians and Oeselians would later raid the early Christian settlements in Livonia as well, which resulted in them getting their ass kicked by punitive expeditions by the Swordbrothers and their native allies.
 
Today I learned that

"in 1187 Sigtuna was attacked and pillaged by raiders from across the Baltic Sea, possibly Karelians,[7][8] Curonian and/or Estonian (Oeselian) raiders.[9][10]"

I didn't know that Vikings got raided back. Was that a common thing?
Someone read my post :shifty:

The area in around Stockholm or more importantly at the time, Birka, would at times be raided by vikings from the Kievan Rus , it could be seen as ironic considering that it would be their ancestral homeland. I also think the Jomsvikings in and around the coast of anywhere between Rostock to Gdánsk would raid Denmark and southern Sweden, and in return be raided by the same, along with Balts and Poles.
 
#440 When Vasco da Gama reached India (late 15th. century) and visited Hindu temples he saw them as Christian churches with local saints.
The "Krishna" chant was heard as "Christ". Da Gama also reported this when returning home.

 
#441 Around 1927 Art Tatum* bought a car - even though he was close to blind.
Instead he would have other people drive him around.

*One of the greatest (jazz) pianists ever.


#442 When the British parliament abolished slavery in 1833, 20 million pound sterling was paid as compensation to the slave owners (from the years 1833-1843).
That corresponded to 5% of the national income, to about 4000 slave owners.
In 2018 that would equal €120 billion (about €30 million to each slave owner). *


Thomas Piketty: Capital & Ideology
 
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Doctor: Are you sure that you believe your pregnant daughter hasn;t had sex?
Parents: Yes, it must be immaculate conception.
Doctor: Then someone needs to inform the lord that he has HIV.
Well I found it funny.
#443

Contrary to the extremely popular notion, the dogma of immaculate conception doesn't refer to Mary being pregnant with Jesus without sex. It is the notion that Mary herself, fully human, was conceived through regular human sex, but due to divine intervention free of the original sin.

The concept removes any possibility that she could pass the original sin onto Jesus.
 
I was genuinely asking, and don't get it, since Mary is referred to as virgin.

496 From the first formulations of her faith, the Church has confessed that Jesus was conceived solely by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, affirming also the corporeal aspect of this event: Jesus was conceived "by the Holy Spirit without human seed"
...
"Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son."150
 
Mary is considered a perpetual virgin. She did give virgin birth to Jesus. However that's not what the phrase immaculate conception refers to. That specific phrase refers to the conception of Mary, not Jesus. Unlike Jesus, she was conceived through human sex of her two human parents, but she as free from the original sin since the moment of her conception.

Therefore all jokes where (claims of) pregnancy without ever having sex or being impregnated by a god are likened or referred to as immaculate conception are invalid. The immaculate conception did involve human sex and the being conceived - Mary - was fully human, with two human parens.
 
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