› added 10 years ago

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TIL that people estimate NASA’s budget to be 24% of the national budget, on average. It’s currently only ~0.48%.

Read more thespacereview.com

via reddit.com

kWjE TIL that since 1985 the government of Saudi Arabia has destroyed about 95% of the holy city of Mecca in order to make way for the construction of hotels, apartments, parking lots, etc. There are now less than 20 structures that date back to the period of Muhammad.
0YY1 TIL that Elon Musk believes that the United States is “[inarguably] the greatest country that has ever existed on Earth”, describing it as “the greatest force for good of any country that’s ever been” and believes outright that there “would not be democracy in the world if not for the United States”
1eE8 TIL that nuclear power plants in the US are so strong that they can be struck by a large commercial airliner and still not release harmful radiation
xMbo TIL that Dave Grohl was so intimidated by Kurt Cobain that he hid a lot of the music he made while on tour with Nirvana. After Cobain’s death, the tucked away music would become Foo Fighters first album.
LEvZ TIL that a Turkish cell phone mis-rendered a text message, making it look as though a husband was accusing his wife of cheating on him. This caused a fight in which the wife was stabbed and subsequently died. The husband later killed himself in prison.