› added 5 years ago

130

TIL that a company in Tokyo decided to make their HQ into a vertical farm. They gave up 43,000 square feet of space to grow food. 200 species of fruits and vegetables are harvested and served to employees. There is a 1000-square-ft rice paddy in the entryway.

Read more faircompanies.com

via reddit.com

KOLQQ TIL the 2002 Canadian cartoon 'RoboRoach' (which followed the story of a cyborg cockroach) was inspired by the true story of cyborg cockroaches created by scientists at the University of Tokyo
Ox97 TIL In 2014, a rural Iraqi clock maker went to sleep, woke up, and watched a “nice Egyptian film” before realizing he was the last resident remaining after his town had been seized by ISIS. He convinced them he was not a soldier, showed them the Mosque’s light switch, and went back to his house.
mxKEP TIL that the Statue of Liberty was orginally intended for the Suez Canal. When the Canal neared completion, the sculptor Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi requested to build a sculpture he named "Egypt Bringing light to Asia" at the canal's entrance. When he was denied, he went with his ideas to New York.
J1n71 TIL that the Edwards aquifer in Texas is one of the most biodiverse subterranean systems in the world. Several species are only found in that area, with a species of blind catfish (curiously the only species in the genus Satan) coming out of wells 610m deep.
ep66D TIL Luis "The Beast" Garavita, the world's most prolific serial killer, was sentenced to 1853 years in prison for the deaths of 193 children in Colombia, but his sentence was reduced to 22 years after he helped the police find many of the victims' bodies. He becomes eligible for parole this year.