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TIL that one of the winners of the VH1 Big Backyard BBQ contest in the 90's, Raymond Holcomb, who had muscular dystrophy, was hit with a tax bill of $2,496, because the $11,700 concert was seen by the IRS as "taxable income." John Mellencamp's management company agreed to work something out to help.

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kOeom TIL a full suit of medieval armour weighed from 45 to 55 lbs, actually less than a modern infantryman would carry in equipment.
j6XVQ TIL the Indian festival of Thaipusam involves carrying a Vel kavadi, a portable altar up to 2m (6 ft 7 in) tall and weighing up to 30 kg (66 lb). It is adorned with peacock feathers and attached to the devotee's body using multiple skewers and metal hooks pierced into the skin in the chest and back.
Y7L7P TIL: Panama is the only place on the planet that has square trees- even the transplanted trees from the square trees grow round as usual when planted in other places outside of Panama. And the “rings,” of the interior tree grow in a square shape, rather than the usual circle, making it truly unique.
7rQJb TIL about the Holomodor, a man-made famine in 1930s Ukraine that killed up to 12 million ethnic Ukrainians. Some scholars believe that the famine was planned by Joseph Stalin to eliminate a Ukrainian independence movement.
wLGnY TIL that when wooly mammoths went extinct, their territorial grassland was replaced with birch forests. This ushered in an age of forest fires so significant that it may have changed the global climate.