› added 6 years ago

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TIL navigating by the stars is still used, the SR-71 (the fastest ever manned airplane) used a computer to automatically track the stars giving it <300m accuracy at Mach 3+. It could even track stars during the day.

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Oo6b6 TIL Costco purposefully designed their store without signs to force people to wander through all the aisles and find things to buy.
MelYW TIL that in the early 1900s, it was believed that human cells in culture would proliferate continuously, but Leonard Hayflick proved that cells “remember” their replication level and have a limit to the number of times they can divide, also that cancer cells do not, so only they are immortal.
NwP TIL 1/3 of LBGT Youth have attempted suicide, that 4 out 5 students in public schools do not have a supportive adult, 65% of LBGT students do not feel safe at school, 41% reported violence from peers, family or strangers, and 26% of LBGT youth that come out are told are kicked out of their homes…
78r0O TIL Uber developed a secret program called "Greyball" to avoid lawsuits, Uber would try to identify government officials and give them a fake version of the Uber app that showed inaccurate information about driver locations and didn't allow any rides to be hailed.
N7yYQ TIL the Spartan Pausanias was accused of treason for conspiring with the Persians, but seeked refuge in a temple so he couldn't be tried and executed while inside. His mother went to the temple to lay the first brick at the door, which was sealed until he died of starvation