› added 12 years ago

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TIL there is a mid-rise shopping center in Zimbabwe which uses an air conditioning system inspired by African termite hills. It is ventilated and cooled by natural means, and uses less than 10% of the energy of a conventional building its size.

16lW7 TIL Neil Armstrong had rejected numerous proposals to have an author write his biography until he finally accepted a proposal from James Hansen, a history professor. He eventually recorded more than 50 hours of interviews with Armstrong, who did not demand approval rights for "First Man" nor profit
vP6NL TIL an 800 sq ft (74 sq m) trailer home in a trailer park in Montauk, New York sold for $3.75 million. This modest mobile-home park, Montauk Shores, once a working-class getaway, is becoming increasingly popular with billionaires and celebrities. Musician Jimmy Buffett recently bid on a trailer.
LkJ7p TIL that one of the most effective weapons in WW2 was the proximity fuzed shell: the allies were so terrified of the enemy getting hold of samples they were initially only to be used over water by the Navy - there was an embargo on their use over land until 1944.
QbQ6 TIL: Author Colin Woodward wrote that America is not one country, but 11 different countries based on sociological presence. Miami isn’t even part of the US.
GAv1Q TIL body cameras are being marketed for hospital workers in the U.S. and there are privacy concerns that this will cause footage of a patient's most intimate and private moments to be accessible by numerous hospital employees, hackers, and criminals.