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TIL the Pentagon plans to seed the ocean floor with payloads of sensors, drones and other devices, which will lay dormant waiting to be called into action to aid U.S. forces. This program is called “Upward Falling Payload.”

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VMkgZ Airbus has started testing an aircraft that can fly more than 20 hours without needing to refuel. The A350-900 XWB will go into service for Singapore Airlines next year, flying passengers between Singapore and New York City on a 19-hour trip — nearly an hour longer than the longest current flight.
RGo1 TIL that David Bowie was next on Mark Chapman’s hitlist, after John Lennon. “Chapman had a front-row ticket to The Elephant Man the next night. John and Yoko were supposed to sit front-row for that show, too. So the night after John was killed there were three empty seats in the front row.”
pEVN TIL that in 1963, the Quebec government bought out all the private power companies and nationalized electricity. Today, 96% of Quebec’s power is from hydroelectricity, and it has some of the cheapest electricity rates in North America while earning billions in revenue.
VPKm TIL a Japanese Oil Tanker captain fell into a cactus at a Santa Barbra Oil Field, provoking laughter from the local workers. 5 years later he returned in an Imperial Japanese Navy sub and made the first mainland shelling of the US at that oil field.
jNR6N TIL that the level of difficulty of a mental task, from working on a complex calculus equation to completing a simple game of Sudoku, barely alters the amount of energy the brain consumes while completing the task.