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TIL NASA was fined $400 by Australia in 1979 for littering when pieces of Skylab crashed into the Australian outback. No one was injured. The fine was unpaid until Californian radio DJ raised funds from his listeners and paid NASA’s fine 20 years later in 1999.

Read more nationalgeographic.com.au

via reddit.com

PrZE TIL Dr. Soren Sorensen developed the pH scale in order to test the acidity of beer to ultimately make better beer.
8e9EZ TIL The Sphinx was buried in sand around 400 years after it was built, roughly 4500 years ago. In 1400 BC, Thutmose IV attempted to unbury the Sphinx but only managed to uncover its front paws. It would not be fully unburied until 1887 AD, meaning the Sphinx was mostly buried for nearly 4000 years.
Xwgr TIL Shakuntala Devi, an Indian mental calculator,was asked to give the 23rd root of a 201-digit number; she answered in 50 seconds. Her answer was confirmed by calculations done at the US Bureau of Standards for which a special program had to be written to perform such a large calculation.
xNP7 TIL that the 1965 “Slumber Party Barbie” came with a scale permanently set to 110 lbs, and a diet book with just one instruction: “Don’t Eat!”
vlL7 TIL: The CDC recommends that Ebola survivors should use condoms indefinitely.