› added 5 years ago

110

TIL the principal designer of the B-2 stealth bomber was convicted in 2011 of using classified information to assist the People's Republic of China. He was sentenced to 32 years and is at the supermax prison known as the "Alcatraz of the Rockies" ADX Florence.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

9OWr TIL a valley settlement in Norway that lives in shadow for nearly half of every year has installed giant mirrors on an adjacent mountain to redirect sunlight into the town’s square, all based on a plan that was thought up 100 years ago.
egvk TIL: In 2002, Chechen separatists brought down a Russian Mi-26 helicopter, which subsequently crashed into a minefield killing 127 soldiers on board. It was the most deadly aviation disaster ever suffered by the Russian armed forces, as well as their worst loss of life in a single day since 1999.
DX0g TIL the first black president in North America was Vicente Guerrero, the second president of the Republic of Mexico in 1829. He is known for abolishing slavery in Mexico forty years before Lincoln would do the same on the US.
9wLYX TIL The flower that takes the longest to bloom is a rare species of giant bromeliad, Puya raimondii, native to the mountains of Bolivia. On average it takes between 80-150 years to bloom, though one specimen planted by UC Berkeley only took 28 years to bloom.
p8Va8 TIL about the North Korean third broadcast network. It is a network of speakers that are wired into people's homes and relays local news and instructions. There are also rumours that the system can't be turned off, but the volume can be lowered.