› added 5 years ago

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TIL the Luchador antagonist in Jack Black's movie Nacho Libre, Ramses, was a real luchador known as Silver King, and that he died from a heart attack in the middle of a wrestling match earlier this year.

16k9X TIL Fritz Lang’s film “Woman in the Moon” is often cited as the first occurrence in media of the "countdown to zero" before a rocket launch. It was so influential that the first successfully launched V-2 rocket at the rocket facility in Peenemünde had the Frau im Mond logo painted on its base.
yQJZ8 TIL that Ecuador (GDP per capita is 1/6 of US) and Peru (GDP per capita is 1/4 of US) both maintain active research stations in Antarctica.
nWB87 TIL that, from July 2017 to February 2024, at least 108 people have been killed since the Brightline company began its high-speed train service in Florida. However, after National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigations, none of the deaths were found to be the fault of Brightline.
WkMKd TIL of the Invention Secrecy Act. The government has a program in place which specifically deals with inventions that are deemed to be "threats to national security" (open thread for choice quotes). There are currently 6102 inventions under lock and key, some of which "pertain to energy generation".
Y7nXP TIL that the most powerful earthquake ever recorded caused a tsunami that traveled the whole length of the Pacific ocean, from Chile to Japan, in less than a day and was still strong enough at arrival that it caused casualties.