› added 11 years ago

169

TIL in 2013, Costa Rica announced it would close all its zoos, effective March 2014, and free animals either to the wild or to safe “retirement” shelters. Officials say this is a response to “a change of environmental conscience among Costa Ricans”

Read more globalpost.com

via reddit.com

VB1OD TIL about the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race, a non-stop, single-handed, round-the-world yacht race held in 1968-69. Of the 9 participants: 4 retired before leaving the Atlantic Ocean, one retired after Cape Horn, one sank, one committed suicide, one abandoned it, and only one completed the race
6OY TIL of the Edelweißpiraten. They engaged in hiking and camping trips, offered German adolescents an opportunity for sexual experimentation with the opposite sex and were antagonistic to the Hitler Youth.
BW0W TIL Bill Murray, playing Ernie McCracken, actually rolled 3 consecutive strikes to film the final scene of the movie Kingpin.
ng6Y TIL the saying “bless you” after a sneeze comes from 14th century Pope Gregory VII, who asked it be said after every sneeze to protect against the plague.
VM0vp TIL Right before the show F.R.I.E.N.D.S premiered, the cast took a group trip to Vegas for one last taste of anonymity. "Once the show comes on the air, you guys will never be able to go anywhere without being hounded," director James Burrows told them, not inaccurately.