› added 1 year ago

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TIL Stephen Hawking joked that he couldn’t escape fame even with a disguise. “It is not enough for me to wear dark sunglasses and a wig. The wheelchair gives me away.” He added that people constantly wanted photos with him, which was a nuisance when he was in a hurry.

R5LK8 TIL of "fat men's clubs," a popular phenomenon in the US from the late 1800s to early 1900s. Many of these social clubs limited their membership to men weighing over 200 lb (91 kg). These clubs declined when obesity began to be seen as a negative trait rather than associated with wealth and kindness
e0bb4 TIL: Entrepreneur Laura Scudder (1881-1959), a pioneer of marking food with freshness dates & of using chips bags was refused insurance by male agents. After decades she gave up a $9 million offer for her company when the buyer wouldn't guarantee workers' jobs. (A later $6M offer did protect them.)
Kwjw TIL that Kurt Vonnegut was once employed by Sports Illustrated and tasked with writing a story about a racehorse who jumped over a fence to try to run away. He wrote “The horse jumped over the fucking fence” and left the job.
oDMY TIL that Fidel Castro predicted correctly 43 years ago, that the USA will talk to Cuba again when they “have a black president and the world has a latin american pope”.
JYvZ8 TIL the moon appearing larger on the horizon is known as the Problem of Luna Mendex and is actually an illusion of the eye. The illusion can be broken by cupping your hand into a fist and looking through it at the 'large' horizon moon. It will immediately shrink in size.