› added 7 years ago

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TIL the Macadamia nut has the toughest shell of any nut in the world, requiring 300 pounds per square inch to crack.

wLOAP When 50,000 of Mark Rober's 3 million YouTube subscribers participated in a basic coding challenge, the data all pointed to what Rober has dubbed the Super Mario Effect. The YouTube star and former NASA engineer describes how this data-backed mindset for life gamification has stuck with him along his journey, and how it impacts the ways he helps (or tricks) his viewers into learning science, engineering, and design. Mark Rober has made a career out of engineering, entertainment, and education. After completing degrees in mechanical engineering from Brigham Young University and the University of Southern California, Rober joined NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 2004. In his nine years as a NASA engineer, seven of which were on the Mars rover Curiosity team, Rober worked on both the Descent Stage (the jetpack that lowered the Rover to the surface) and some hardware on the Rover top deck for collecting samples. In 2011, Rober’s iPad-based Halloween costume helped launch both his creative costume company, Digital Dudz, and his YouTube channel, which now boasts 3 million subscribers and 400 million views. His videos focus on creative ideas and science- and engineering-based pranks and activities. Rober is a regular guest on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!". Today, he does research and development work for a large technology company in Northern California, where he lives with his wife and son.
KO90J TIL on Alton Brown's last day of sixth grade, his father was found dead with "a Hefty bag taped to his head". Police ruled it a suicide but Alton believes that his father may have been murdered.
7rW6x TIL In 2008 a British man traveling to Dubai was sentenced to 4 years in prison after being caught with 0.003g of Cannabis, Which was stuck to his shoe.
VQ0m Today I learned of the “tiny house movement” where single people and couples live in houses as small as 120 sq. feet to have a smaller environmental impact on the world and to use money saved on other things…
KOgvG TIL "A rule of thumb is that if you see the tsunami, it is too late to outrun it. Even small tsunamis (for example, 6 feet in height) are associated with extremely strong currents, capable of knocking someone off their feet," writes United States Geological Survey (USGS).