› added 12 years ago

220

TIL that NASA did not actually spend $12 billion on a Space Pen while the Russians used a pencil.

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OomO7 TIL Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) was a dirt poor Scottish kid who immigrated to the U.S. where he became the richest man in the world. He gave away $350 million, nearly 90 percent of the fortune he accumulated through the railroad and steel industries.
jyOp TIL The United States first space station, Skylab crashed in Australia. The county where it crashed fined NASA $400 for littering. NASA never paid the ticket.
4XMLJ TIL The iconic Slinky toy was created during the development of a device designed to stabalise naval equipment during rough seas. Richard James knocked one of his springs off a bookshelf and it "stepped' down a pile of books.
Y7MYx TIL around 20% of sperm are abnormal and may possess two heads, no heads, or two tails. Known as "kamikaze sperm", they are theorized to attack and kill the sperm of rival males with enzymes and block them from reaching the egg.
KGW4 TIL Sony created a magnetic tape that can store 185 TB of data in one cartridge, the equivalent of 3,700 dual layer Blu-ray discs.