› added 8 years ago

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TIL that NASA observed that astronauts returning to Earth after spending 6 months in space experienced visual acuity changes. A condition they call “Globe Flattening,” believed to be due to a build-up of pressure that changes the shape of the eyeball which changes the optics.

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via reddit.com

wLNkE TIL that both the Carpathia (which rescued Titanic's passengers) and the Californian (which was nearby but allegedly never saw Titanic's distress signals) were both sunk in WW1. Carpathia lies in 600 feet of water off of Ireland and California lies somewhere off of Greece but has never been found
wLxgM TIL that after WWII, Col. S. L. A. Marshal published a report that found only 15-20% of soldiers in combat fired to kill during the war, even if their lives were threatened. This prompted the US Army to switch from bulls-eye targets to sillouette targets to desensitize soldiers to killing
xVoQ7 TIL: Certain mammals such as the red kangaroo or roe deer can perform Embryonic Diapause- the ability to "pause" embryo development in unfavorable environmental conditions, effectively saving the embryo and the mother's life in bad conditions.
womY7 TIL that the New Mexico Fish and Game department introduced several dozen South African Oryx in the 70s for novel hunting opportunities. The Oryx is now invasive in New Mexico, and there are thousands of them in the wild imbalancing ecosystems there.
a8EJ TIL 14-year old Laurence Fishburne lied about his age to play a 17 year old soldier in Apocalypse Now. Filming took so long that Fishburne was actually 17 years old when shooting wrapped.