› added 2 weeks ago

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TIL the brain has a "default mode network" that's best known for being active when a person is not focused on the outside world and the brain is at wakeful rest, such as during daydreaming and mind-wandering. It creates a coherent "internal narrative" central to the construction of a sense of self.

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rRdLw TIL that former major league pitcher Randy Johnson is now a professional photographer. The logo of his company is a tribute to the bird he hit while pitching in 2001.
Lkle9 TIL That Pluto was discovered in 1930 by a 23 year old farm boy with no degree in astronomy. He spent a year comparing photographs, looking for a star that changed positions in the sky. He would later teach at New Mexico State.
pYGRQ TIL the fictional plane ‘Darkstar’ featured in the opening of Top Gun: Maverick was so realistic on screen that China moved its satellites to monitor it, even though it doesn’t exist.
oBLDr TIL: Victor Goldschmidt, the founder of modern geochemistry carried a Cyanide pill as a last resort if captured by Nazi's. When a colleague asked him to create one for him, he stated, "Cyanide is for chemists; you, being a professor of mechanical engineering, will have to use the rope."
EQyd TIL Galileo’s middle finger is kept in a museum since its 1737, symbolizing Galileo pointing to the skies, pointing to evolution, to new things, to the infinite and “giving the finger” to all of his critics who doubted him, including the catholic church.