The useless bits of info to see if we can make a million posts thread

[cAstAgeAr]

The first living creatures that the United States ever sent into space were two mice, named Benjy and Laska, in 1958. The first animal to go into space was a dog, sent up by the Russians.

[cAstAgeAr]

Astronauts are not allowed to eat beans before they go into space because passing wind in a spacesuit damages them.

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The liquid hydrogen in the Space Shuttle main engine is -423 degrees Fahrenheit (-253 degrees Centigrade), the second coldest liquid on Earth, and when burned with liquid oxygen, the temperature in the engine's combustion chamber reaches +6,000 degrees F. (+3,316 degrees C.)

[cAstAgeAr]

Each of the Space Shuttle's solid rocket boosters burns 5 tons of propellant per second.

[cAstAgeAr]

Comets' tails point away from the Sun at all times. Thus, when a comet is moving away from the Sun, its tail is actually leading. Comet tails are caused by dust and gas being lost from the comet and then pushed away from the Sun by the solar wind (charged particles moving out from the Sun) and by radiation pressure from the Sun.

[cAstAgeAr]

An Armageddon meteor came within 280,000 miles of the Earth on May 21, 1996. This could have been devastating to life on Earth. Fortunately for us, and Bruce Willis, it missed!

[cAstAgeAr]

Even before the Sun turns into a red giant its increased output will fry the Earth, and by the time it turns into a red giant the Earth will be a parched ball of bleached rock.

[cAstAgeAr]

Don't Panic!
The Sun has enough energy to burn for another 5 billion years.

[cAstAgeAr]

Amazon.com - Founder Jeff Bezos renamed the company to Amazon (from the earlier name of Cadabra.com) after the world's most voluminous river, the Amazon. He saw the potential for a larger volume of sales in an online bookstore as opposed to the then prevalent bookstores. (Alternative: It is said that Jeff Bezos named his book store Amazon simply to cash in on the popularity of Yahoo at the time. Yahoo listed entries alphabetically, and thus Amazon would always appear above its competitors in the relevant categories it was listed in.)

[cAstAgeAr]

2300 . . . . :

[cAstAgeAr]

Cadillac - Cadillac was named after the 18th century French explorer Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, founder of Detroit, Michigan. Cadillac is a small town in the South of France

[cAstAgeAr]

Coca-Cola - Coca-Cola's name is derived from the coca leaves and kola nuts used as flavoring. Coca-Cola creator John S. Pemberton changed the 'K' of kola to 'C' for the name to look better.

[cAstAgeAr]

eBay - Pierre Omidyar, who had created the Auction Web trading website, had formed a web consulting concern called Echo Bay Technology Group. "Echo Bay" didn't refer to the town in Nevada, the nature area close to Lake Mead, or any real place. "It just sounded cool," Omidyar reportedly said. When he tried to register EchoBay.com, though, he found that Echo Bay Mines, a gold mining company, had gotten it first. So, Omidyar registered what (at the time) he thought was the second best name: eBay.com.

[cAstAgeAr]

Google - the name is a misspelling of the word googol, reflecting the company's mission to organize the immense amount of information available online.

[cAstAgeAr]

Häagen-Dazs - Contrary to common belief, the name is not European; it is simply two made-up words meant to look European to American eyes. This is known in the marketing industry as foreign branding.