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TIL of Superstar USA. Essentially "Anti-American Idol" only the worst singers progressed, but were told they were performing well. In the finale they revealed to the "winner" that she was actually a terrible singer, and the show was all a prank.

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rmgM TIL The oldest parachute design appears in an anonymous manuscript from 1470s Renaissance Italy (over 400 years before the airplane), showing a free-hanging man clutching a cross bar frame attached to a conical canopy. As a safety measure, four straps run from the ends of the rods to a waist belt.
rN51w TIL Queen Victoria’s grandson Waldemar had hemophilia. The German royal was treated well by the Nazis and received multiple blood transfusions. In 1945 when Germany fell, all medical resources were diverted to holocaust survivors. The Americans refused Waldemar a transfusion and he died at age 56.
x6OBw TIL That against the almost universal cliche, xxxx doesn't grow on Trees, Oxygen does actually 'grow' on trees, although the bulk on Earth's oxygen is produced in other ways.
LyGm TIL: Johnny Knoxville comes from significant inbreeding.
QJg56 TIL that to many Icelanders, WW2 is actually known as blessað stríðið – “the blessed war" as the country has the war to thank for its independence.