Small things 24 Feb

• Every high voltage tower should have one of those vertical spinning wind turbine generators installed in them. That way, they can both support the grid and add to it at the same time.
• In 1945, the Dutch royal family sent 100,000 tulip bulbs to Ottawa in gratitude for Canadians having sheltered the future Queen Juliana and her family for the preceding three years during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. The most noteworthy event during their time in Canada was the birth in 1943 of Princess Margriet at the Ottawa Civic Hospital. The maternity ward was temporarily declared to be extraterritorial by the Canadian government, thereby allowing Princess Margriet's citizenship to be solely influenced by her mother's Dutch citizenship. In 1946, Juliana sent another 20,500 bulbs requesting that a display be created for the hospital, and promised to send 10,000 more bulbs each year. By 1963 the festival featured more than 2 million tulips, rising to nearly 3 million by 1995. Princess Margriet of the Netherlands attending the Canadian Tulip Festival in May 2002. In the years following Queen Juliana's original donation, Ottawa became famous for its tulips and in 1953 the Ottawa Board of Trade and photographer Malak Karsh organized the first Canadian Tulip Festival. Queen Juliana returned to celebrate the festival in 1967, and Princess Margriet returned in 2002 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the festival.
  
  
  
• China Girl, co-written by David Bowie and Iggy Pop, first appeared on an Iggy Pop album in 1977. It did not become popular until it was rerecorded and released by Bowie in 1983. What prompted Bowie to put the song on one of his own albums was that Iggy Pop was broke due to his struggle with drug addiction. Bowie decided to re-record and release the song on his own record so that Iggy Pop could collect half the royalties as co-writer of the track and get back on his feet.