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TIL George Lucas came back from shooting Star Wars in England to find Industrial Light & Magic only had 3 of the 365 shots completed yet had spent half of their $2 million. He was hospitalized for hypertension and vowed to never direct another film

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wBVE TIL Two privacy researchers from the University of Texas were able to unmask Netflix users’ political and sexual orientation by taking the “anonymized” movie ratings (released as part of Netflix Prize) and comparing them against non-anonymized movie ratings posted at IMDB.
ADp7g TIL that the first Olympics had an event called Pankration, a mix of wrestling and boxing where the only restrictions were of biting/gouging. Breaking digits and dislocating limbs was common, the battle only ending in death/surrender. The Greeks invented sports medicine in response to this event.
Lk7ZZ TIL of Richard Carmona who dropped out of high school at 16, joined US Special Forces during the Vietnam War, went on to Medical School after that, later becoming a physician. He would also serve as a SWAT commander for a county sheriff's dept. In 2002, he became the 17th Surgeon General of the US.
bGKN TIL a Russian mathematician solved a 100 year old math problem. He declined the Fields medal, $1 million in awards, and later retired from math because he hated the recognition the math community gives to people who prove things
9wrmX TIL the last Grand Duchess of Russia passed away in 1960 in a small Toronto apartment