› added 9 years ago

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TIL the Voyager missions were launched when they did to take advantage of a unique planetary arrangement that allowed flight time to Neptune to be reduced from 30 years to 12. This alignment occurs every 175 years.

Read more jpl.nasa.gov

via reddit.com

X8xR TIL Thanks to the Freedom of Information Act, the CIA released nearly 12 million documents. One set of documents revealed research of possibility that “insane” people may be experiencing multiple “levels of reality” and their brains can’t process this information, leading to mental instability [PDF]
6E87Y TIL that due to the threat of a one million dollar budget overage Warner Bros. Studio gave up production of the film 'Home Alone' to 20th Century Fox. The film went on to gross 300 million dollars, shattering box office records of the time.
9YLQ6 TIL that serial killer Paul Knowles was shot dead, while trying to escape from a police car. Apparently, he reached across the back seat, and tried to steal one of the officers' gun.
jNpMa TIL Ringo Starr's song Octopus's Garden on Abbey Road was written as an F-You to the other members of the Beatles in response to tensions that were threatening to, and would eventually, break up the Beatles
VMOJZ TIL of the “megapode,” a species of bird so physically mature at birth that they already have flight feathers and can take off within hours of hatching.