› added 4 years ago

1354

TIL that the origin of the idiom "Red Herring" was itself a red herring. It was originally stated that red herring were used to help hounds sniff out prey. It's misleading because red herring were actually used to train horses and were only used if there were no dead cats available instead.

nWxDG TIL that an earlier age of breast cancer diagnosis is related to the use of antiperspirants/deodorants and underarm shaving.
v1WXK Flying a helicopter on Mars is so damn hard but NASA made it possible. For the first flight, the helicopter took off, climbed to about 10 feet (3 meters) above the ground, hovered in the air briefly, completed a turn, and then landed. It was a major milestone: the very first powered flight in the extremely thin atmosphere of Mars, and, in fact, the first such flight in any world beyond Earth. Being able to fly a helicopter or drone on Mars is very important as they can cover 24 kilometers in an hour. By the way, Curiosity took nine years to travel less than 25 kilometers.
wjw8 TIL: As a result of China’s “one child” policy and sex-selection abortions, China has 30+ million surplus single men between age 25-40. That’s more than the combined population of adults in New York and Texas who will never find a mate.
awadZ TIL Certain oak tree populations will synchronize to produce almost no acorns, only to rain them down excessively the following year, known as a "mast" year. The year preceding the mast year is thought to starve off the mammal populations feeding on the acorns.
WgQd TIL Florida is coming up on nine years without a hurricane making direct landfall