Beautiful, well engineered infrastructure you haven't seen before - a thread🧵👇
1. The Banff Wildlife Crossing Project in Alberta, Canada, is essentially a bridge for animals & has reduced animal-vehicle collisions in the area by more than 80%🇨🇦
2. The Falkirk Wheel in Scotland, a rotating boat lift that opened in 2002. It connected the Forth and Clyde canal to the Union canal for the first time since the 1930s and is the only one if its kind in the whole world.🏴
3. Crab Overpass on Christmas Island, where more than 40 million red crabs migrate every year🇨🇽
4. Amager Bakke ski resort in Copenhagen is also a waste-to-energy plant🇩🇰
5. Cell phone tower disguised as a cactus in Arizona🇺🇸
6. Heatherwick Rolling Bridge, London, England🏴
7. Yanweizhou park was designed to flood during the monsoon season to help prevent the city of Jinhua, China from flooding🇨🇳
8. The Gwangyang Steel Works in Gwangyang, South Korea is the largest facility of its kind in the world. It outputs an average of 18 million tons of steel per year, producing parts for bridges and other infrastructure, cars, refrigerators, and more.🇰🇷
9. Roads through an archipelago in Værlandet, Norway🇳🇴
10. Inside the Jewel Changi Airport in Singapore🇸🇬
11. Bike path through a lake in Belgium🇧🇪
12. Boston, MA moved a highway underground in ~15 years🇺🇸
13. Jacksonville, Florida Spiral Interchange🇺🇸
14. Bharati Research Station of India in Antarctica🇦🇶🇮🇳
15. The Friedrich Bayer Bridge in Sao Paulo, Brazil🇧🇷
16. Land Bridge in the Netherlands🇳🇱
17. Sart Canal Bridge in Belgium🇧🇪
18. Panlong Road in China🇨🇳
19. The old Stockholm Telephone Tower connected more than 5,500 telephone lines🇸🇪
20. An oil rig before being sunk
21. Royal Gorge Bridge in Colorado🇺🇸
22. Veluwemeer Aqueduct, The Netherlands🇳🇱
23. Pontcysyllte Aqueduct in Wales for pedestrians and narrow boats🏴
24. Railway bridge over Nairobi National Park in Kenya🇰🇪
25. At nearly 24 miles long, the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in Louisiana stands as the longest continuous bridge over water in the world🇺🇸
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He was a Soviet colonel who more than likely saved humanity from World War 3.
The story of Stanislav Petrov and how after disobeying orders he is often credited as having saved the world🧵👇
Petrov joined the Soviet Air Defence Forces in 1972 after attending the Kyiv Military Aviation Engineering Academy. He was a Lieutenant Colonel during the Cold War.
On September 26, 1983, Petrov was the officer on duty for the Soviet's Oko nuclear early-warning system. Suddenly, the defense system displayed, in large red letters, the word “LAUNCH,” indicating that a missile had been launched by the United States at the Soviet Union.
Why medieval scholar Michael McCormick wrote that 536 A.D. "was the beginning of one of the worst periods to be alive, if not the worst year." - thread👇
1. At least three simultaneous massive volcanic eruptions spewed ash into the atmosphere that blocked out the sun for 18+ months across much of the world
2. The ash and fog caused temperatures to fall 1.5-2.5 degrees Celsius, leading to the crop failures and mass famine all across Europe and Asia that lasted a decade, which also happened to be the coldest decade in Europe in more than 2,000 years.
The history of how all 32 NFL teams got their name - a thread🧵
1. Pittsburgh Steelers
Established in 1933, the football team in Pittsburgh was called the Pirates until 1940 when it became the Steelers. The initial name was chosen to mirror the baseball team in the city.
Thanks to a contest for a new name in 1940, the Steelers were born. A fan named Joe Santoni submitted the name to set the football team apart from the baseball team but also because he was a mill worker for Pittsburgh Steel.
The industrial roots of Pittsburgh have carried on in the team's name as well as in the team's mascot. In 2007, Steely McBeam was introduced to represent steel and beams alike. The “Mc” part of the name comes from Diane Roles, who came up with the moniker because the Rooney family (the Steelers' longtime owners) are Irish.
2. New England Patriots
Initially called the Boston Patriots when the team was founded in 1959, the founding member of the AFL became part of the NFL in 1970. When the team moved from Boston (where they played in various stadiums) to their current home in Foxborough in 1971, the name changed, too.
The “Patriot” part of the team's moniker was the result of a host of options submitted by locals when Boston began developing a team. “Patriots” was a nod to the revolutionary history and spirit of Boston, and the team's first logo featured colonial militia troops (minutemen).
The Patriots mascot, Pat Patriot, was created by cartoonist Phil Bissell in 1960.
3. Miami Dolphins
Established in 1966, the Miami Dolphins were members of the AFL until 1970 when the AFL and NFL merged.
From 1966 to 1968, the Dolphins' mascot was a live dolphin named Flipper who jumped out of a tank at the Orange Bowl Stadium when Miami scored.
Flipper was essentially dismissed when team owner Joe Robbie refusedto pay for repairs to her tank and for transportation to and from the Miami Seaquarium where she lived while not at games.
It wasn't until 1997 that T.D. entered the scene. The initials stand for “The Dolphin,” although they can refer to “touchdown” as well. T.D. was named after thousands of fans took part in a contest for the privilege. In the end, T.D. was one of 529 names submitted.