› added 1 year ago

118

TIL Teófilo Stevenson, widely regarded as the greatest Olympic boxer of all time, was offered a million dollars to defect from Cuba and fight heavyweight world champion Muhammad Ali. Stevenson declined, asking "What is one million dollars compared to the love of eight million Cubans?"

Brlwk TIL that the world's largest film studio is Hengdian Studios, in China. Basically a city of permanent full-scale replicas of palaces, fortresses, and towns from various periods of China's history. Whole populations of nearby towns are often employed to be extras for period dramas & fantasy movies.
5R5D TIL that “Spider Goats” are a thing. Since farming spiders for silk isn’t ideal, scientists spliced silk spider genes into goats. This new goat can then produces silk out of its utter with its milk.
D18De TIL there's a sport called Octopush. It's a game of hockey, but held underwater.
QdGd TIL the naked mole-rat is the only species of animal (including simple organisms) in which cancer has never been observed, it can’t feel pain through its skin, it’s the only mammal with a social structure similar to ants or termites including a reproducing queen, and it’s the longest living rodent.
mm5Y TIL “” …in 1900, 28 percent of the cars on the road in the USA were electric. EVs were so popular that even President Woodrow Wilson and his secret service agents toured Washington DC in their Milburn Electrics, which covered 60–70 miles per charge.“