Today I learned the Himba people of Namibia sees colours way differently than others in the western world. They can easily see different variations of green, which we can't, but overall they only have 5 colour categories where the western world has eleven.
TIL that in 2003, Ekaterina Dmitrieva married the cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko through a video call while he was in orbit, with a cardboard cutout of him as a proxy. As he hadn't sought permission, weddings in space were banned afterwards, he's therefore the only man in history who married in space.
TIL in 1989 Meat Loaf, his career floundering, was booked on a ramshackle tour of some of Ireland’s worst community centres, ballrooms, hotel function rooms, sheds and fields. He walked off-stage at a gig in Moate after he was pelted with beer cans, glasses, bottles, shoes, and a wheelchair
TIL Blue Whales eat between 20 and 50 million calories every day. That's approximately what a human adult eat in 50 years (2500 calories/day). In the words of the researcher himself, "that is about 70 to 80 thousand Big Macs".
TIL that J. Michael Straczynski, writer of Spider-Man comics and creator of Bablyon 5, had a mentally ill prostitute for a mom and an abusive Nazi for a dad
TIL: in 2019 a Nepalese climber Nirmal (Nims) Purja climbed all 14 peaks in the world above 8000m (the death zone) in just 6 months.
TIL that the National Art Museum Of Ukraine recreated a "Sleeping Beauty" live exhibit inviting men to awaken beauties with a kiss. Five women were selected to perform "sleeping", having agreed to a very binding clause to marry the men if they opened their eyes while being kissed.
TIL that after Spartacus was defeated, Crassus, the commander of the Roman forces, crucified 6,000 of the surviving rebels and lined the road with them—a crucifixion every ~100 feet for over 100 miles.