› added 8 years ago

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TIL that Astronaut John Glenn became the oldest person in space at 77 after “lobbying NASA for two years to fly as a human guinea pig for geriatric studies”.

Read more nasa.gov

via reddit.com

ADPKw TIL red and yellow peppers are more expensive than green ones simply because they are left to ripen longer on the vine.
QJreX TIL: The former French president authorized the bombing of a Greenpeace boat because it was protesting nuclear weapons testing.
R5Vp1 TIL dolphins use coral mucus to treat their skin. As they are prone to skin ailment, they would rub their body against the coral before and after their sleep, like human skincare routines. The corals they prefer include bioactive metabolites that can be used for skin medication.
dD5xK TIL that adults who played Pokémon video games extensively as children have a brain region that responds preferentially to images of each Pokémon. Stanford researchers identified the brain region activated by Pokémon characters.
VBO6m TIL that during the 1980 Okęcie plane disaster passengers were found to have been holding onto their seats so hard, that it led to severed muscles and tendons unrelated to the damage caused by the crash itself.