TIL that Stephen Baldwin has a tattoo of the initials "HM" for Hannah Montana after making a pact with Miley Cyrus that he would be allowed to cameo on the show if he had the initials tattooed on him. He was never given the opportunity to be on the show and has said he regrets getting the tattoo. https://ift.tt/s9T4cEZ

TIL It's possible to bring back some extinct animals. In 2016, some ecologists from UCSB advised which species should be revived to best impact Earth's ecosystems. The species that made the cut: Christmas Island pipistrelle bat, Reunion giant tortoise & Lesser stick-nest rat. https://ift.tt/56RaC2u

TIL that KFC commissioned this painting for a man who figured out that the KFC twitter account only follows 11 accounts… all of which are a combination of Herbs and Spices https://ift.tt/aYS3zjr

TIL that bricks of tea were used as currency in ancient China, Tibet, and Central Asia. https://ift.tt/nC5jSXl

TIL of the estimated ~1100 eponymous "Stradavarius" instruments made by Antonio Stradivari (1644-1737) only about 58% are thought to survive. https://ift.tt/01UQgeG

TIL on 9/11/01 a guest at the Marriott World Trade Center hotel, located at the base of the towers, awoke to the first plane crashing but went back to bed. He then got up, turned on the news, took a shower, packed his things, and only decided to evacuate when the South Tower collapsed onto the hotel https://ift.tt/sbu6SDd

TIL many Olympic athletes are either broke or working 9–to-5 jobs outside of their training. https://ift.tt/3H8chbo

TIL Catholic services were preformed with the priest facing away from the audience until the 1960’s. https://ift.tt/v7GVbPT

TIL in the US police get as low as 672 hours of training, while New Zealand the next lowest Western country requiring at least 1924 hours of training. And a lot of countries require 4500 hours of training. https://ift.tt/qETFsAp

TIL that a "Silent Man" in the UK repeatedly gets arrested for standing on one road to block traffic. He never speaks a word, not even to paramedics, police, the court, or his own lawyer. Ongoing for more than a decade. Everytime he is released, he repeats the crime and remains completely silent. https://ift.tt/kphQBLi

TIL a BBC documentary unveiled the extreme torture of elephants in Indian temples. https://ift.tt/Kx1dFRL

TIL driving certain vehicles on certain days in the Phillipines is banned. Depending on the number the licence plate ends with, determines which day that car is not allowed to be on public roads https://ift.tt/lPIZ2JS

TIL Mario Puzo, the author of the Godfather books who’d also adapted them to film, had no idea what he was doing as he’d never written a screenplay before. After winning two Oscars, he decided to buy a book on screenwriting to learn how. In the first chapter, it said “Study Godfather I” https://ift.tt/ia61uGS

TIL that actor Hero Fiennes Tiffin, who was cast as young Voldemort in the Harry Potter films is the nephew of Ralph Fiennes, who played old Voldemort. Although he auditioned along with thousands of others, this family connection led to accusations of nepotism. https://ift.tt/dXPItEa

TIL there is a volcano on Mars that is 2.5 times as tall as Mount Everest and about the diameter of France https://ift.tt/Vb6iWuJ

Today I learned that Gene Wilder died listening to one of his favourite songs, Ella Fitzgerald's version of "Over the Rainbow". https://ift.tt/gDzCo6a

TIL that English law when discussing trademark infringement uses the "moron in a hurry" standard. It was famously used in Apple Corp. v. Apple Computer, where it was ruled even a moron in a hurry wouldn't confuse the Beatles' label with Apple Computer. https://ift.tt/Yx3XmFH

TIL Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker invaded the stage at the 1996 Brit Awards to protest Michael Jackson's performance, in which he sang surrounded by children and a rabbi https://ift.tt/wr16Qou

TIL that 2023 is the first full year that Earth hosted 8 billion people. https://ift.tt/2GtgDmW

TIL The grandniece of China's last emperor is an artist who opened a gallery in Vancouver's Chinatown where she sells her paintings and displays works dedicated to explaining the Qing dynasty https://ift.tt/Y8ja6OE

TIL that the Roman emperor Claudius wrote a now lost book on the art of playing dice. https://ift.tt/Vcsh5qT