› added 5 years ago

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TIL that astronauts in orbit are not weightless because they escaped the Earth's gravity, but because they are in free-fall. The ISS at 400KM altitude still experiences around 90% of the Earth's gravity.

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via reddit.com

0wn7R TIL Not long after Julius Caesar was assassinated, a comet shone for seven successive days. This signified Julius Caesar's ascension to Godhood, and propaganda for Caesar's nephew. The comet was described as: "To make that soul a star that burns forever, Above the Forum and the gates of Rome."
8APb TIL that for his role in Animal House, Donald Sutherland was offered $35k + 15% of the film’s gross. Thinking the film would be a flop, Sutherland negotiated a flat fee increase to $50k with no percentage of the gross. That decision cost him roughly $20 million.
g4VX TIL Sri Lanka and India were connected by a faint 50 kilometer long sandbar that existed until 1480 when a storm broke it. People used to walk the wispy sandbar from the mainland to the large island in the Indian Ocean, losing sight of the land masses. Scientists still argue as to how it was formed.
ZpG1p TIL About the "Glass Cliff": A phenomenon where women are more likely to achieve leadership roles in business and government during periods of crisis or downturn when the risk of failure is highest.
E1OAW TIL about Kintsukuroi which is the practice of seeing beauty in the flawed or imperfect. Instead of throwing out the damaged pottery, the Japanese would repair it with gold and create art from the broken.