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TIL that to help illustrate the hippo ballerina scene in ‘Fantasia,’ Disney animators hired a 200-pound woman to move about on a sound stage, studying how her flesh quivered and which parts were under the greatest strain.

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nWg9P TIL The Association for Women with Large Feet was a British organization founded in 1949 to lobby manufacturers to produce more stylish women's footwear in larger sizes. Later, they expanded their focus to lobbying for more clothing options for tall women. Members had to be at least 5' 8" (173 cm).
D1o0P TIL NASA and the U.S. Naval used 11 deaf men from Gallaudet University and their inability to get nauseous to study the effects of prolonged weightlessness on the human body. Their work made substantial contributions to the understanding of motion sickness and adaptation to spaceflight.
ne47b TIL the earliest known entry of an internet search on the word “jihad” was in reference to a 1990s anti-Barney the Dinosaur online community called “The Jihad to Destroy Barney.”
b0m4 TIL I learned that only 5% of British police are authorised to use firearms. A 2006 survey of 47,328 Police Federation members found 82% did not want officers to be routinely armed on duty, despite almost half saying their lives had been “in serious jeopardy” during the previous three years.
b6kj TIL that a man who gave away his fortune to charity also donated a kidney to a stranger, noting that the chances of dying as a result of the procedure were about 1 in 4,000 and “to withhold a kidney from someone who would otherwise die means valuing one’s own life at 4,000 times that of a stranger”