› added 3 years ago

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TIL about the Falkirk Wheel, the world's only rotating boat lift, which lifts boats 80 feet between two canals. What used to take 11 locks and most of a day now takes about 10 minutes.

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via reddit.com

ep0e6 TIL The star SMSS J031300.36−670839.3, while only 6,000 light years from Earth, is 13.8 billion years old, more or less the same age as the universe.
R79x8 TIL that Laika the first dog in space went through a grueling death hours after the launch of the spaceship from overheating She had been strapped in with no space to move, had only one serving of food, and was under immense stress from being in there. This made me immensely sad.
e0ObL TIL Palma de Mallorca Airport in Spain only reached 1 million passengers for the first time in 1962. Today, the airport serves 29 million passengers per year & during the busiest days in the Summer handles as many movements as London-Heathrow, the busiest airport in Europe.
1OoO TIL Mohammed Hemly, an Egyptian doctor who lived in Nazi Berlin, saved the lives of a Jewish friend and her family by sheltering them in his cabin for 3 years. Years later the Isreali Government gave him an honorific title, but his next of kin rejected the honor, citing Egypt-Israel relations.
G5A4 TIL: An Italian tradition, now spreading, of caffè sospeso (suspended coffee) where people can pay for coffees on top of their own so the less well off can have a cup too.