› added 12 years ago

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TIL Curiosity’s wheels have a pattern that leaves patterned tracks in the sandy surface of Mars. That pattern is used by on-board cameras to judge the distance traveled. The pattern itself is Morse code for “JPL”

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QNxdE TIL binary was inspired by ancient Chinese philosophy, the I-Ching. The same text that provoked Confucius gave Leibniz the insight to develop binary encoding. 64 bits also encapsulates DNA encoding.
Kx0E TIL that over a span of six years, pharmaceutical companies have sent 400 pain pills to West Virginia for every person living in West Virginia.
lOnA TIL it’s possible that Arabs traded with Australia long before Europeans arrived there.
WvEA TIL that the “Miracle Berry” fruit, a novelty that makes bitter foods taste sweet, has been used to help chemo patients increase their food intake.
OokXX TIL that in the 70s, Stephen King published several books under a pseudonym, partly to test whether his fame was due to luck or talent: “Thinner did 28,000 copies when Bachman was the author . . . 280,000 when Steve King became the author . . . might tell you something, huh?