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TIL the "Pizza The Hutt" suit for the movie Spaceballs weighed about 25 pounds and was made with a fiberglass undershell, a foam latex skin, steam jets, hoses, pancake batter, and pizza toppings. It was so uncomfortable that the original actor who wore it refused to get back in it for reshoots
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaceballs
https://redd.it/1f2az62
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TIL during the siege of Leningrad, scientists working at the world’s largest collection of seeds protected the seeds from the threats of the cold, the hungry residents of the besieged city, rats, and their own hunger. Twenty-eight of the botanists died during the siege, protecting their collection.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_of_Plant_Industry
https://redd.it/1f2as01
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TIL Sonora Carver; one of the first female horse divers, continued horse diving for 11 more years after being blinded from hitting the water with open eyes off of Atlantic City's Steel Pier. Horse diving was a stunt where a horse would be ridden off a 40-60 foot tower into a body of water.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonora_Webster_Carver
https://redd.it/1f2glhj
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TIL that Ferrari & Lamborghini no longer make cars with a manual transmission
https://www.motortrend.com/features/last-manual-supercars-list/
https://redd.it/1f2ny0f
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TIL The Harlem Globetrotters once lost track of a game and found themselves down 12 with 2 minutes left. Forced to play normal basketball, they rallied but could not recover. When the final buzzer sounded, the crowd was dumbfounded and disappointed. Some children in the stands cried after the loss.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Generals#Beating_the_Harlem_Globetrotters
https://redd.it/1f2lnow
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TIL that Michigan and Ohio went to war in the 1830s over… Toledo.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toledo_War
https://redd.it/1f1r4nk
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TIL that the US Air Force built a supercomputer comprised entirely of PlayStation 3s
https://www.cleveland.com/metro/2010/11/defense_department_discusses_n.html
https://redd.it/1f1urjr
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TIL almost 3 billion living people have never used the Internet
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/nov/30/more-than-a-third-of-worlds-population-has-never-used-the-internet-says-un
https://redd.it/1f1utoj
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TIL the American Military’s C-5 Galaxy is nicknamed FRED by aircrews for “Fucking Ridiculous Economic (or) Environmental Disaster”. Due to the C-5 using large amounts of fuel, maintenance, reliability, & cost of production.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_C-5_Galaxy
https://redd.it/1f1udwj
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TIL the shade of semen naturally changes over the course of a man's life.
https://www.webmd.com/men/what-to-know-about-yellow-semen
https://redd.it/1f1u52w
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TIL that the "microwave-safe" label on plastic containers only means they won't melt or warp, and doesn't guarantee that chemicals won't leach into your food when heated
https://scienceline.org/2022/09/is-it-safe-to-microwave-plastic-containers/
https://redd.it/1f0qm01
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TIL the US Government once released its own video game to inform, educate, and recruit prospective soldiers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America%27s_Army
https://redd.it/1f18o4p
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TIL that whales were saved from massacre when kerosene appeared (1860s) because, until then, whale oil was widely used as illumination fuel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whale_oil
https://redd.it/1f118kk
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TIL that the German grocery chain, Lidl, opened a store in Dublin and used glass floor panels to display both 11th and 18th century archaeological ruins.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/dublin-grocery-store-shoppers-glimpse-viking-history-beneath-their-feet-180976150/
https://redd.it/1f14074
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TIL a young couple in Japan divorce and remarry each other every 3 years to take turns using their family names, all because they can't come into agreement on which last name to use.
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20220325/p2a/00m/0li/006000c
https://redd.it/1f13sew
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TIL Mark Twain outlived his wife and all but one of his four children
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Twain
https://redd.it/1f2lddc
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TIL that those oxygen masks that come down inside airplanes are connected to individual “chemical oxygen generators” rather than a supply of oxygen gas
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_oxygen_generator
https://redd.it/1f2mu3q
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TIL at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair, the opening night lights were automatically activated when the star Arcturus was detected. This star was chosen since its light takes ~40 years to arrive, so the rays landing on Earth had begun their journey ~1893, the year of Chicago's previous World's Fair
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_of_Progress
https://redd.it/1f2kkk7
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TIL In a feat of rage, Emperor Hadrian once stabbed a slave in the eye with a pen. Feeling regretful whe he calmed down, Hadrian called the slave and told him to ask for literally anything as compensation. The slave replied "i just want my eye back"
https://blogs.kent.ac.uk/lucius-romans/2016/01/13/life-of-a-slave-in-ancient-rome-part-2/
https://redd.it/1f2pdkn
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TIL of Captain Citrus, a fictional mascot based on Captain America from the Florida Department of Citrus, a state body tasked with promoting Florida's orange industry. Created in 2011 as "Ollie the Orange", Florida paid Marvel around $1 million in 2014 to redesign and publicly promote the character.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Citrus
https://redd.it/1f1ofol
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TIL The 'Magna Carta' (1215) was the first document to put into writing the principle that the king and his government are not above the law.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magna_Carta
https://redd.it/1f1zy3j
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TIL that George Stanley, the designer of the Canadian flag, received death threats from opponents of his design.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/canadian-flag-george-stanley-nb-1.5463103
https://redd.it/1f1vlp6
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TIL the 2010 Flash Crash, during which the US stock market temporarily lost $1 trillion in value, was partly caused by Navinder Sarao, an autistic man living in his parents' London home. In a span of 5 years, Sarao made a profit of $40 million by tricking high frequency traders with custom software.
https://www.bbc.com/news/explainers-51265169
https://redd.it/1f1l6mj
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TIL that due to a disfunction of the ABCCII gene the majority of Asians have significantly less body odor than other populations
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/east-asians-no-body-odor-dont-need-deodorant-rcna156778
https://redd.it/1f1z6yg
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TIL there are depictions of Knights engaging Snails in battle drawn in the margins of late 13th century medieval written works like song & prayer books, & even papal letters. They include man-sized snails, snails hovering in mid air, & man/snail hybrids ridden by rabbits. Their origins are a mystery
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20231221-the-mystery-of-the-medieval-fighting-snails
https://redd.it/1f0u6wy
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TIL Dodi Fayed, Princess Diana’s partner, who also tragically died in the car crash with her, was the cousin of assassinated Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. They were both nephews of Saudi billionaire arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodi_Fayed?wprov=sfti1#Date_of_birth
https://redd.it/1f18ddd
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TIL that, when coffee arrived from Arabia to Europe, it boosted the Renaissance and the Age of Enlightenment. In the early days, the Royal Society of London used to meet in a coffee shop, not in a pub.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Enlightenment
https://redd.it/1f111dq
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TIL marshmallows are a 4000 year old food beginning in ancient Egypt AND originally they were made from the sap of a mallow plant…that grows in marshes…
https://candyusa.com/marshmallows/
https://redd.it/1f0vy1v
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TIL when Ben Stiller decided to play the lead role in Tropic Thunder himself, Tom Cruise called him & said that "he just couldn't get the script out of his mind" & asked him "What else is open?" Stiller suggested the role which Cruise had actually invented, studio head Les Grossman, and he took it.
https://www.cinemablend.com/new/Apparently-Tom-Cruise-One-Who-Invented-Les-Grossman-74407.html
https://redd.it/1f0txfz
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TIL that both Duane Allman and Berry Oakley (both of the Allman Brother’s Band) died in separate Motorcycle crashes one year apart; both 24 years old, both in Macon Georgia, and each incident only three blocks away from from each other
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berry_Oakley
https://redd.it/1f0fc1a
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