› added 5 years ago

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TIL of Alex Zanardi, a Formula One driver who lost both of his legs in a major crash in 2001. After, he designed and built his own custom prosthetics for racing. He started racing again in specialised touring cars. He also took up handcycling, and won medals in both the 2012 and 2016 Paralympics.

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mQwv TIL that a cow named Cincinnati Freedom evaded police officers for 11 days after jumping a six-foot fence to escape a slaughterhouse; after finally being caught, and she was given the “key to the city” by Cincinnati’s mayor and allowed to live out her days in a NY sanctuary
e0Zvk TIL comedy writers Leonard Stern and Roger Price had an idea for a word game but didn't know what to call it. One day they overheard an actor saying he wanted to "Ad-Lib" an interview in which his agent called him "mad" for doing it. Stern and Price used that chat to call their creation Mad Libs.
QJJPe TIL that Al-qaeda initially considered targeting nuclear power plants on 9/11 but decided against it, fearing that such an attack "might get out of hand".
mxQWp TIL US airlines commonly offered bereavement airfares, allowing passengers to travel to funerals or medical emergencies at deep discounts. This practice was stopped by most carriers in the early 2000s, with the exception of Delta and Alaska Airlines.
e0m7k TIL The International Potato Center has successfully grown potatoes in a simulated Mars environment. They grew the plants in a CubeSat which mimicked the Martian air pressure and atmosphere, and used saline desert soils analogous to Martian soils as the growing medium.