› added 10 years ago

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TIL that Godzilla is covered in “keloid scars” to evoke the gruesome marks borne by the survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. After these incidents, Godzilla was conceived in Japan as a metaphor for the danger nuclear weapons represent to humanity.

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BMMK TIL Stephen Hawking has survived for over 50 years after being diagnosed with a disease that only 4% of people survive 10 years with.
d8R5d TIL a group is injecting wild rhino horns with a pink dye that is harmless to rhinos but causes vomiting and diarrhea in humans. The goal is to poison illegal rhino horn consumers in order to decrease poaching.
X0w76 TIL that in 2018, an American half-pipe skier qualified for the Olympics despite minimal experience. Olympic requirements stated that an athlete needed to place in the top 30 at multiple events. She simply sought out events with fewer than 30 participants, showed up, and skied down without falling.
4XLv6 TIL shortly after George H. W. Bush vomited and fainted at a meeting with the Japanese Prime minister in 1992, a man named James Edward Smith, called CNN posing as the president's physician claiming Bush had died. CNN was within seconds of publishing the story, but stopped the anchor mid sentence.
xEag TIL when Andre the Giant would go to Japan he would sometimes shit in bathtubs, or on newspapers because the toilets were too small for him