› added 9 years ago

113

TIL that creating a Death Star would cost roughly $850,000,000,000,000,000 and that it would take about 833,000 years to build. It would also need a laser of 1,000,000,000,000,000 kilograms worth of matter to have enough energy to destroy a planet for each time it was fired.

xB4D TIL that the fabric and wood pieces from the Wright Brothers airplane were flown on the Apollo 11 mission and were in the lunar module Eagle that landed on the Moon with astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, Jr.
wmOE TIL that playing action video games trains people to make the right decisions faster without loss of accuracy. Video game players develop a heightened sensitivity to what is going on around them, which helps with multitasking, driving, keeping track of friends in a crowd, and navigating around town.
wolv6 TIL: Every night, since 886 AD, the Wakemen of Ripon, England, blow horns in the evening to "set the watch." The tradition is from Ripon's first citizen, the "Wakeman," who was responsible for crime prevention in the city from 9 pm until dawn and had to compensate victims of burglary.
yQldw TIL of HMS Victory, the oldest commissioned warship in the world with 241 years' service. She is best known for her role as Lord Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805. She gets 350,000 visitors per year.
69oMm TIL of the Pierce Arrow armoured anti aircraft lorry deployed by the Royal Marine Artillery in the First World War. Used from 1915 to 1917, it shot down over twenty enemy aircraft, having take out the first of these within two days of deployment.