› added 12 years ago

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TIL the Moon is about 400 times smaller than the Sun, but it also just happens to be about 400 times closer. The result is that from Earth, they appear to be the same size.

Read more spaceplace.nasa.gov

via reddit.com

Oo0E4 TIL about Russia's "spacecraft graveyard" in the Altai region, where over 2,500 tons of space debris -- some dozens of feet long -- have rained down since the start of the Space Age. As new space junk falls, locals rush to raid the wreckage for precious metals they can sell.
b90e9 TIL TVs emit a tone during ad breaks that are inaudible to humans but that smartphones are listening for; now corporate entities can link the tv & phone as belonging to the same person. It means govt entities can play a tone thru the TV & ping all the phones in the room, identifying the whole group.
1aeKr TIL there's a nerve that goes from the face all way to the groin, and is the longest cranial nerve in the body.
VMlKB TIL that after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Congress voted 388-1 to declare war on Japan. The sole dissenter was Jeannette Rankin, a pacifist and the first woman elected to congress. She said of her decision ""I voted as the mothers would have had me vote."
DG0p TIL an FDA official saved the US from a generation of children with birth defects such as flipper-like arms and feet by repeatedly blocking the authorization of a drug, already approved in Europe, known as Thalidomide.