DYK #21: View from space

How many times have you read a post stating "Great Wall of China is the only man-made object visible from  the moon with the naked eye". Received this as a part of 'amazing facts' e-mail from you friends?

Continue reading after the jump to find out the truth!

DYK #19: Tears in space

There is a myth floated by several facts-sites that astronauts cannot cry in space. This is not true (at least completely). There is some odd behavior due to no/low gravity in space.

Tears run down your face because of gravity, but they don't need gravity to form. When the tears get big enough they simply break free of the eye and float around.

Frank Culbertson, the ISS commander who was in space during the 9/11 attacks, wrote, on learning that a friend of him was captain of flight 77 which was crashed into the Pentagon:

"What a terrible loss," Culbertson writes, "but I'm sure Chic was fighting bravely to the end. And tears don't flow the same in space..."

Source: CNN

This also applies for sweat. There are several movies which depict odd behavior of liquids in space.

References:

1. http://www.badastronomy.com/mad/1998/cry_astronaut.html
2. http://edition.cnn.com/2001/TECH/space/10/15/attacks.culbertson/
3. http://history.nasa.gov/ap15fj/08day3_leak_hilltop.htm

DYK #1: Questions on Donald Duck's character

Many popular fact posting pages claim that Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland because he didn't wear trousers and cavorted with an unmarried female duck!

This is an urban legend. It was sparked up by an incident in 1977, when Helsinki councilman Markku Holopainen proposed discontinuing the use of city funds for the purchase of Aku Ankka (a.k.a Donald Duck) comics for youth centers, as a reaction to financial difficulties. The following year, as Holopainen was running for a Parliament seat, his opponents then called him "the man who banned Donald Duck from Helsinki".

A funny thing worth noting is that though Donald (or Aku) doesn't wear pants, he requires a towel when coming out of the shower

For more refer:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aku_Ankka
2. http://www.snopes.com/disney/films/finland.asp