› added 2 years ago

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TIL about Spacecraft cemetery, the oceanic dumping ground where spaceships go to die. The area is roughly centered on Point Nemo —location farthest from any land, International Space Station is slated to end up there upon "retirement" and join other 263 disposed satellites.

4Xevb TIL one reason why Greenland is considered the largest island and Australia is a continent not an island (even it fits the definition of an island to be entirely surrounded by water) is because Greenland is a part of the North American plate and Australia has its own separate tectonic plate.
E1AoV TIL of Charlie Walker, the first non-government individual to fly into space. After NASA deemed him unqualified and rejected his 1978 application for astronaut, he co-developed a space bound device which required him to accompany it. Walker flew into space three times with the device he co-patented.
BgBMd TIL when a chimpanzee that learns an effective method to crack nuts open is placed into a new group that uses a less effective strategy, it will eventually stop using the superior method just to blend in with the rest of the chimps.
bQyp TIL of Insular Dwarfism, the tendency for small species to become larger and large species to become smaller upon being moved to an island.
WkVLX TIL Gilles de Rais, 13th century child serial killer and companion-in-arms of Joan of Arc, depleted his wealth performing occult experiments including three attempted summonings of a demon named Barron.