› added 3 months ago

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TIL that in 1966, following the success of The Fantastic Four, DC Comics created The Inferior Five, a parody "superhero" team whose members include Awkwardman (superstrong but clumsy), the Blimp (can fly but very slowly), White Feather (skilled archer but cowardly), among others.

78mkr TIL In 1721, a Swedish widow named Maria Ersdotter was arrested for having a sexual relationship with her 24 year old former stepson. Because relations by marriage were considered equivalent to blood relations, the two were both convicted of incest and executed by beheading.
W7xRN TIL about Raven Thorogood III, a 5 year old monkey who outperformed more than 6,000 internet and technology money managers earning an astonishing 213% return.
wLAQ1 TIL a Canadian man getting a rectal exam by his doctor at a hospital was observed by people he assumed were medical practitioners/med students. He sued the hospital and observers after learning the observers were two actors who play doctors on TV doing research for the TV series "Saving Hope."
wPEM TIL there is a unit called the “Manhatten distance” (or city block distance), describing the distance of two points when you, rather than measuring the direct linear connection, sum up the length of the left/right and the up/down movement, as if you walk along blocks in a big city.
lWWr TIL that NASA wanted to send Caroll Spinney, the actor who plays Big Bird to space via the ill-fated Challenger Space Shuttle in 1986 to interest children in space. However, the Big Bird suit was too big for the shuttle, so he was replaced by teacher Christa McAuliffe.