› added 11 years ago

327

TIL that there’s an American city 2.4 miles away from Russia

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

woDp8 TIL of 'normalcy bias', a cognitive distortion that convinces people nothing is wrong during a crisis. One author said that during a tornado warning, people 'would try to shame him into denial so they could remain calm'
KOxZ9 TIL that the Soviet Union built their own Space Shuttle in secret. In November of 1988, they revealed and launched The Buran for it’s one and only flight successfully. Unlike the US Space Shuttles, this space craft was fully autonomous, had ejection seats, and was able to carry 30 tons.
GXoJ TIL that Kim Peek, the inspiration for the movie Rain Man, was a savant born with significant brain damage who has read over 12,000 books and remembers everything he’s read in them. He reads two pages at once, one with each eye, and remembers it all.
5VWeP TIL the sex worker arrested with Hugh Grant earned $1.6 million from publicity related to her arrest and used the money to buy a home in Beverly Hills and put her daughters through private school.
GO84 TIL of French Treasury Chief Etienne de Silhouette, whose penny-pinching ways inspired the term ‘à la Silhouette’ for things perceived as austere. These included a newly popular form of portraiture using a shadow profile cut from black paper.