› added 1 year ago

73

TIL that the phrase "Does exactly what it says on the tin" came from a UK advert in 1995

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6EZRQ TIL ice ages begin when continents block warm water flow from the equator to the poles, forming ice sheets that increase Earth's reflectivity and reduce solar radiation absorption. This cools the atmosphere, causing ice sheets to grow, which further increases reflectivity in a positive feedback loop
4XK8g TIL Mount Everest is only the world's tallest mountain as measured from sea level. But since the earth bulges at the equator, the mountain Chimborazo in Ecuador is the tallest mountain if you measure from the earth's core.
5mK9 TIL that a German probe is the fastest man-made object in history
looga TIL in 1966 Elliot See and Charles Basset, two Project Gemini Astronauts, died by crashing their T-38 jet into the building that housed the very spacecraft they were to have flown into orbit.
AKLw TIL that Noshir Gowadia, one of the lead engineers for the B-2 stealth bomber, is serving a 32 year prison sentence for selling classified information to the Chinese Government (in particular cruise-missile and jet related stealth technology).