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TIL in 1997 two composers tried to create the world’s most annoying song, featuring (in part) an operatic soprano rapping over cowboy music featuring bagpipes and tuba while children sing about holidays and advertise for Wal-Mart. (MP3 in comments)

GYOQQ TIL Some areas on earth are so remote that sometimes the closest human beings are astronauts aboard the International Space Station when it passes overhead.
naDd TIL an underground system governs the turf that China’s beggars can work: able-bodied beggars who intrude on territory reserved for the disabled or elderly are beaten
5PYr TIL Louis Armstrong was 1 of the few people who could move between East and West Berlin without papers. “The East Germans had their guns out, looked at us and said ‘Louis Armstrong.’ They got his autograph and waved us on. On the US side; 'This is Satchmo!’ Every night we went back and forth.”
mxdXO TIL a live recording of pop saxophonist Kenny G's "Going Home" is played in businesses/stores/stations/on TV throughout China at the end of the day. Many Chinese people associate the song with going home or finishing work, though they do not know the track or artist
nekmo TIL former actor Jake Lloyd, the man who played young Anakin in The Phantom Menace, was bullied so much for his role he quit acting and destroyed his Star Wars merch. Later he would be arrested for reckless driving without a license and has been transferred to a psych facility for schizophrenia.