› added 12 years ago

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TIL that even though the Dalai Lama can’t swim, his greatest fear is being eaten by a shark

Read more telegraph.co.uk

via reddit.com

kOZxB TIL that while Sputnik was the first man-made object to reach orbit, 13 years earlier the Nazis launched the MW 18014 rocket, the first man-made object to reach outer space.
Z45a TIL in 1965, seeds that were dated to 2,000 years old were discovered in an ancient jar in Israel. The seeds were kept in storage for 40 years and after they were planted, a tree that had been extinct for over 1800 years sprouted.
l7EEa TIL When Shannon Lucid arrived on Mir space station, the deputy commander noted that fans will be taken care because women love to clean. Also, her male cosmonaut crew mates will be on their best behavior and pay more attention to the way they behave, they act and they speak when a lady is on board
6EQeQ Matter tells space how to curve, and curved space tells matter how to move. That's the basic principle behind Einstein's General Relativity, which linked, for the first time, the phenomenon of gravity with that of spacetime and relativity. Place a mass down anywhere in the Universe, and the space around it will curve in response. But if you take that mass away, or move it elsewhere, what causes the spacetime to "snap back" to its unbent position?
XEXlk TIL that some people can see into the ultraviolet part of the spectrum when they have their lens removed from cataracts (called aphakia), and that UV color is described as a pale whitish-blue. This is why Claude Monet, who became aphakic, began painting w/ more blue post-surgery! Weird!!