› added 8 years ago

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TIL of the “Sisyphus Train,” a project currently underway in Nevada meant to recover surplus grid power that can’t be stored very easily. During the day, the excess power is used to drive the train up a hill. At night, the train rolls back down, generating it all back again.

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ea5b TIL Epicurus, the father of hedonism, died from a painful urinary blockage. On his deathbed he still declared that he was happy because his “philosophical recollections counterbalances all these afflictions”
ADxd7 TIL of the theft of the Irish Crown Jewels, stolen in 1907, shortly before the visit of King Edward VII Today they would be valued at several million euro. They were never Recovered.
XLwE TIL of Richard Jewell who became a national hero for saving hundreds of lives when he spotted a bomb at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, only to be wrongly accused of the crime 3 days later
d8gZj TIL: Former French colonies still have to pay a "colonial debt" to France.
rNNRM TIL of Commander James H. Ward, the first US Naval officer to be killed in the American Civil War. A destroyer named after him fired the first American shots of the Pacific Theater in WW2, sinking a Japanese submarine. Actor Andy Devine is his great-grandson.