› added 10 years ago

754

TIL Norway imports garbage from other countries to generate energy.

Read more theguardian.com

via reddit.com

W7MoL TIL that Nikola Tesla tried to sell several governments on a "death ray" that would destroy armies and planes from 200 miles away
x61Eb TIL that the Wright Brothers' 1903 Flyer was so unstable, it was virtually uncontrollable by anybody besides the brothers, who had trained on their 1902 glider.
VB9QQ TIL that the execution of the royal Romanov family was extremely messy and prolonged because the women had diamonds and jewelry concealed in their clothing, deflecting many of the bullets. It took between twenty and thirty minutes before all were killed.
16KJ7 TIL: In 1355, Portuguese King Afonso IV had his son Pedro’s mistress, Inês de Castro, decapitated in front of her children to end their romance. When Pedro became king, he had her killers’ hearts publicly ripped out—saying they had pulverized his own.
MEYb TIL that there is a word in Mandarin pronounced “kǎnyé” that literally translates to “big talker”