Things I learned lately 19 Feb

• The reason the Texas power grid failed during the recent snowstorms is because Texas decided to privatize their grid to escape federal regulations and maximize profit. The grid's private owners now had the 'option' to winterize their infrastructure and chose not to. Everyone else connected to the federal grid is working just fine. Also, wind turbines work just fine in arctic weather. When they are winterized.
• The Santa Maria Novella Pharmacy is probably the oldest still-operating pharmacy in the world, and certainly the oldest in Italy. It was established in 1221, when the Dominican monks from the adjacent Basilica of Santa Maria Novella began growing herbs to make balms, salves and medicines for their infirmary.
• If you're being recorded by someone and you don't want it to remain online, just start playing some very well known copyrighted music. The online copyright filters will be triggered and the video will be pulled. Because that's what copyright was designed for. To be used as a weapon against transparency. Well done everyone.
  
  
  
• In the middle of the Japanese countryside, there's a train station. You can exit the train here, but you can't go anywhere. There are no roads or paths away from the station and no one lives in the area. The Seiryū-Miharashi Station exists solely to allow people to enjoy the natural beauty of the Nishiki River flowing through the forest. After you disembark and breathe in the mountain air, the next train will pick you up in about 10-15 minutes.
• Many farmers can no longer survive on what the farm earns for revenue. Case in point, I know a farmer who works in a factory to make ends meet.
• A Norwegian researcher discovered that if you paint one of a wind turbine's three blades black, bird fatalities can be reduced by 70%.
• Apparently, Jelly Belly is holding a contest where the winner could end up owning one of their candy factories.