› added 6 years ago

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TIL that, when asked to investigate the space shuttle Challenger disaster, Richard Feynman wrote a very critical report about NASA's safety policy concluding: "For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled."

Read more history.nasa.gov

via reddit.com

6AbZ TIL in 1998 a South African commission chaired by Desmond Tutu concluded that Winnie Madikizela–Mandela, Nelson Mandela’s wife for 38 years, was directly responsible for the murder, torture, abduction and assault of numerous men, women and children.
Ea8W TIL Hot Cheetos were invented by a Mexican immigrant working as a janitor in a Frito-Lay plant, who is now an executive. After a machine broke, he took some plain Cheetos home, and created his own recipe inspired by street elotes. The president let him pitch it even though he barely spoke English.
v14yj TIL that due to poaching, female African elephants are evolving tuskless; about 1/3 of females in a Mozambique Nat'l Park were born tuskless with males evolving smaller tusks. They use tusks to compete for mating, dig for water and topple trees for food which in turn creates habitats and water holes
glv4 TIL a man was sent a letter offering him a credit card but he didn’t like the terms. So he altered the contract to include unlimited credit at 0% interest which the bank automatically accepted but then tried to void his card. He sued the bank for not sticking to terms of the credit contract and won.
7rG7O TIL that the finnish language did not have a written form before the mid-16th century, when it was created essentially by one man, Mikael Agricola, who wanted to translate the bible from latin to his native finnish