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TIL North Korea abducted at least 17 Japanese citizens between 1977 and 1983 to train spies in language and culture, and only five (and some of their children) have ever been returned.

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dJjd TIL A man named Jack Ass sued MTV for $10 million, claiming the series Jackass was plagiarizing his name. Jack Ass, formerly known as Bob Craft, changed his name in 1997 to raise awareness for drunk driving, after his brother and friend were killed in a vehicle accident.
jN8rp TIL that Caligula once tricked a man into buying 13 gladiators for the high price of 9 million Roman sesterces. He had been selling off some gladiators to replenish the Roman treasury, when he saw a man fall asleep at the auction. He told the auctioneer to consider each of the mans nods as a bid.
NxG1 TIL Bugs Bunny accidentally transformed the word nimrod into a synonym for idiot because nobody got a joke where he sarcastically compared Elmer Fudd to the Biblical figure Nimrod, a mighty hunter.
yVkna TIL that animals euthanized at shelters or animal control agencies have been sent to meat rendering facilities to be processed for use in cosmetics, fertilizer, gelatin, poultry feed, pharmaceuticals and pet food.
x6Le1 TIL a tropical storm hit Long Beach, California in 1939 which is the only cyclone to make landfall in California in the twentieth century. Such events are rare in the Pacific because cyclones feed off the energy stored in warm ocean waters but weaken in the cool waters of the California Current