› added 9 years ago

262

TIL that in 1913 the first practical thermal solar ‘power plant’ was built in Egypt, it generated power using polished steel to focus the sunlight. Unfortunatly WW1 broke out and the power plant was abandoned due to conflict in the area and oil became a much more attractive energy source.

Read more sustainablecitiescollective.com

via reddit.com

mejR TIL: Nintendo’s Mario is named after the landlord of the warehouse Nintendo was using as their American headquarters, the company had gotten behind in rent payment, prompting an angry visit from Mario, the developers subsequently immortalized him by renaming “Jumpman” to “Mario”.
KLyG TIL the U.S. government spends billions of dollars providing GPS for the entire world to use for free
l7pG7 TIL that what we refer to as “The Star-Spangled Banner” is actually only one of four stanzas of the poem it was derived from.
4k8Bb TIL of Meigs Field, which was destroyed one night in a clandestine mission by the chicago mayor.
XGJr TIL A study has found that some soldiers are so attached to their bomb disposal robots that they treat them as if they had personalities, mourn them if they became damaged by enemy explosives; and even hold funerals for them when they ‘die’