Post * VBJvD — Curious Curator

› added 1 year ago

102

TIL After leaving NASA in 1971, Neil Armstrong named his farm for a valley described in "The Lord of the Rings" and chose an email address with a Tolkien theme. There is a theory he based his One Small Step quote on "The Hobbit"

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Ge45 TIL that pinball was illegal for 30 years in many major US cities. Politicians thought that pinball was a game based on chance and therefore must have been a mob-run scam. The ban ended when a master pinball player was called in front of a committee to demonstrate his skill.

4XBoJ TIL To demonstrate the ability of drones to accomplish work while swarming, researchers programmed flying robot quadrotors to perform the James Bond Theme by playing various instruments including the keyboard, drums and maracas, a cymbal, and the debut of an adapted guitar built from a couch frame.

D1Nne TIL In 1929, W. Forssmann performed the first human heart cath on himself. He tricked the OR nurse, put himself under local anesthesia, inserted a catheter into his arm, then walked to the X-ray room to see if it reached his heart. He was fired from the hospital, but awarded the Nobel Prize in 1956.

yVjYv TIL "Cut off your nose to spite your face" There is a version that this phrase has a rather curious origin. Saint Ebbe was said to have severed her own nose to dissuade violation by Viking raiders.

VMe5Q TIL that during WWII, out of pure curiosity, Richard Feynman cracked the three safes at Los Alamos containing all the secrets to the atomic bomb - and didn't break a sweat.