› added 7 years ago

1073

Of all the bodies in our solar system, the sun is probably the one we want to give the widest berth. It gushes radiation, and even though its surface is the coolest part of the star, it burns at about 9,940°F, hot enough to incinerate just about any material. As such, there are no plans to send a manned mission in its direction anytime soon (Mars is much more interesting, anyway), but it can't hurt to figure out at what distance a person would want to turn back. You can get surprisingly close.

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PYGjE TIL The Prime Minister of Canada doesn't have to be a member of parliament, but does need a seat to participate. In the 1925 election Liberal Party leader William Lyon Mackenzie King lost his seat while his party won and "governed from the hallway" before winning a by-election a few weeks later.
JYEG8 TIL Chairman Mao, in a discussion with Dr Henry Kissinger in 1973, offered to send 10,000,000 women to the United States in exchange for improved trade relations.
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yQaAV TIL that the U.S. government accepts donations. An account to accept donations was established in 1843 to accept gifts from individuals "wishing to express their patriotism to the United States".