Fact Of The Day

[AndyC]

Apollo astronauts had no facilities for going "number two." When one had to poop, he would get completely undressed, climb behind the couches for what privacy he could get, and go into a plastic bag, making sure that everything was caught and sealed inside. Bear in mind that there was no gravity, and the material would not necessarily fall into the bag as one would expect. This reportedly caused situations ranging from minor inconvenience to something resembling the "Baby Ruth" scene in Caddyshack. Further adding to the atmosphere in the command module was the flatulence caused by dissolved hydrogen in the water produced by the fuel cells.

I'm so glad I gave up my dreams of being an astronaut! 

Oh, they have toilets now, but it wasn't so easy in the old days. I wonder if there would be as many hoax nuts around these days if NASA had been up front about all the corners they cut and the risks they took to meet Kennedy's deadline and beat the dirty commies. It was much more quick and dirty and seat-of-the-pants than they ever let on. The Soviets, ironically enough, went to the extra trouble of putting a toilet on the original Soyuz, and were generally more cautious about testing things before putting people at risk. While the Americans decided, on short notice, to do a circumlunar flight and put people on the second Saturn V ever flown, the Soviets had planned to first send an unmanned Soyuz around the moon, and then possibly an animal, before sending a cosmonaut. That was one of the reasons they finally lost the space race. That and their technical genius died suddenly, and their counterpart to the Saturn V had a habit of blowing up. This was most likely due to it having a very complicated first stage, using 30 small engines because the Russians hadn't yet been able to develop big ones.

As to who actually won in the long term, consider that the Russians continued to improve on the same technology while NASA is now buying rides from them and paying billions to reinvent what they had with Apollo.

[Raffine]

Actor Andy Garcia was born with a malformed conjoined twin attached to his shoulder.

[Hammock Rider]

The word "Arkansas" is a French pronunciation ("Arcansas") of a Quapaw (a related "Kaw" tribe) word, akakaze, meaning "land of downriver people" or the Sioux word akakaze meaning "people of the south wind".

[alandhopewell]

     My wife is the bestest woman I've ever slapped on the butt.

http://pointingthecannon.blogspot.com/2010/10/tracy-jean.html

[Hammock Rider]

Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment had the longest confirmed human life span in history, dying in 1997 at the age of 122 years and 164 days.

[alandhopewell]

[Leah]

Today is Kurt Cobain's birthday, he would have been 45 today

[Rev. Powell]

Wikipedia's article on "Two and a Half Men" is over twice as long as their article on Plato's "Symposium" (9,298 words to 3,954 words).

[joejoe]

The Dodge brothers started out making parts for Fords

[ghouck]

The Dodge brothers started out making parts for Fords

There's a lot of weirdness in the auto industry. Lee Iacocca Helped engineer the Ford Mustang, John DeLorean Helped design the GTO for Pontiac.

[alandhopewell]

     The famous , romantic road-trip American highway, Route 66, was once a camel trail.

[Hammock Rider]

Sea urchins are sensitive to touch, light, and chemicals. Although they do not have eyes or eye spots, recent research suggests that their entire body might function as one compound eye.

[alandhopewell]

     The WonderTwins suck giant gorilla boogers.

[Silverlady]

This one's for Indy.  Today in 1848, Niagara Falls ceased to flow for 30 hours because of an ice jam; the only time in recorded history that both falls were completely stopped.  Visitors were able to walk out on the ice and recover artifacts from the riverbed.

[Saucerman]

There are currently eleven posts (counting this one) pertaining to sea cucumbers in this thread.