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TIL the reason that Johnny Cash flipped the bird to the camera in the iconic photo was to send a message to the prison warden. The photographer Jim Marshall had asked Johnny to express what he thought of the prison authorities.

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jN5v TIL a physicist wrote a mock paper full of made up gibberish written in the style of post-modernist philosophers and managed to get it published trying to prove that some philosophers are bullshitters
OGopg TIL to collect taxes, Christian IV of Denmark asked captains of ships crossing the Øresund to estimate the value of their cargo, which was applied as the tax base without further audit. But the king also claimed the right to buy the entire cargo at exactly that price.
rNOOw TIL that Uri Geller bought a small island in Scotland because he believes - among other things - ancient Egyptian treasure is buried there
ppmA TIL that there exists a formally recognized type of deception where true statements are used to create a false impression, called “paltering”
Y7aMr TIL Runaway Train by Soul Asylum actually found 21 of the 36 missing kids mentioned in the song.