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TIL when MAD published a parody of Star Wars, George Lucas' lawyers demanded the issue be recalled and that Lucasfilm receive all revenue from the issue. Unbeknownst to Lucas' lawyers, MAD had just received a letter from Lucas, expressing delight over it and comparing the artist to Leonardo Da Vinci

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DJWV TIL Every year the British Medical Journal publishes an issue full of joke science, like one paper that said men die before women because they are stupid. But years later these articles are cited by scientists as real, and this is causing a lot of problems.
Ljlv TIL that a single lake (Lake Baikal) holds one fifth of the world’s unfrozen fresh water; more than all the great lakes combined, yet it covers half the area of Lake Michigan. It is both the deepest (1 mile) and oldest (25 million years) lake in the world.
neXBG TIL Australia's first cops were all criminals. Their first police force was made up of 12 of the best behaved convicts.
j6Xop TIL the first successful C-section (where both the baby and mother survived) was performed in 1500 in Switzerland by a sow gelder named Jakob Nufer on his wife, who went on to have five more children after.
Z8NOY TIL that over 600 fighter pilots of the Swedish Air Force were killed in training exercises during the duration of the Cold War. Eventually in the 1960's flight safety became a concern because aircraft became more expensive.