› added 7 years ago

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TIL Spock’s ‘Live long and prosper’ hand signal is ancient Jewish symbol Leonard Nimoy remembers seeing as a boy.

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nRer TIL a railroad tunnel in the Canadian Rockies is so straight that one can see daylight from the other end over 5 miles away
ADNWa The human brain looks like a big, pinkish-gray, wrinkly walnut. There are so many folds in it that, if it could be unfolded, it could be a small tablecloth. Pinkish-gray might not match your decor, but it would be about the right size! This "tablecloth" is made up of the cerebral cortex and is the wrinkly outside layer of your brain. All those folds are responsible for abstract thought, language, and memory. Scientists believe the wrinkles exist as a way to increase the surface area of the cortex, allowing for increased brainpower in a smaller space. In this week’s Today I Learned, neuroscientist and National Geographic Emerging Explorer Steve Ramirez shares some of his smarts on how your cortex is different from your pet hamster’s.
jNQ5M TIL that Beethoven composed "Fur Elise" for a student he was infatuated with. As she was a mediocre pianist, he made the beginning of the song simple to play. However, she refused to marry him, so he added much harder parts, knowing she would never be able to play it.
Z8BrD TIL the Moon drifts away from Earth at the same speed fingernails grow.
KYDQR TIL astronaut John Young risked the U.S space mission Gemini 3 by smuggling a beef sandwich into space which was breaking up and creating crumbs and that could have caused damage to the spacecraft or the equipment.