› added 6 years ago

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TIL that Frank Borman, the astronaut that led the first flight around the moon, turned down the chance to actually go on a mission to land on the moon, because in his words, "To me, it wasn't worth it. It wasn't worth assuming the risks because I wasn't inclined to go pick up rocks."

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j64wn TIL about the gyro monorail a form of rail transport that ran on only 1 set of wheels and ran on a single line of railway track.It stayed upright using a gyroscope and could even bank on turns. It never made it past the prototype stage due to the costs of needing a gyroscope in every car in a train.
PMRG TIL That the Trans-Siberian Orchestra has donated over $10,000,000 to charity since they started touring.
E1mVX TIL of the lowland streaked tenrec, a black hedgehog-like creature with yellow-striped quills native to Madagascar. Despite its similar physiology, it is unrelated to hedgehogs, instead acting as an example of convergent evolution. It is sometimes referred to as a "fake hedgehog"
KOl7J TIL that in 1942, the HNLMS Abraham Crijnssen, a Dutch minesweeper based in the Netherlands East Indies, successfully disguised itself as a tropical island for several weeks in order to evade Japanese patrols, while withdrawing towards Australia after Allied setbacks in the region during the war.
yvgJ TIL Speedy Gonzales was banned by Cartoon Network for being an offensive stereotype, only to be returned after mass protest by the hispanic-american community.