› added 6 years ago

159

TIL that the moon is 1/400th the size of the sun but also 1/400th the distance from Earth which results in the moon and the sun being the same size in the sky, a coincidence not shared by any other known planet-moon combination.

dD8BB TIL about ASCII, a character encoding standard for electronic communication. In 1968, president Lyndon B. Johnson mandated that all computers purchased by the United States Federal Government support ASCII. It remained the most common character encoding on the World Wide Web until 2007.
8eGxX TIL The world's largest burrito weighed 5,799.44 kg (12,785.576 lbs) and was achieved by CANIRAC La Paz, in La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico on 3 November 2010. 54 restaurants spent 9 1/2 hours creating the 2.4 km (1.49 mi) burrito which was later enjoyed by thousands.
Z8KRo TIL on four separate occasions, British retailer B&Q has had to recall sonic mole repellers in its Northern Ireland stores after being informed there are no moles in Ireland.
a8gAJ TIL that in 2011 a man in Egpyt named his daughter Facebook. He chose the name to "to express his joy at the achievements made by the January 25 youth," who organized protests with social media, starting that day, which led to the ouster of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, after 30 years in power.
wL1PY TIL that the reason cellular signal is so bad in poor weather is because raindrops and water vapor reflect radio waves and convert them into heat energy before they can reach your phone. The same goes for clouds, snow, and fog.