Things I learned lately 1 Feb

• Record amounts of solar generation in Australia have driven electricity prices down, in some states as much as 50%.
• The Japanese have a love for all things ‘Western’ and that includes a love of things Texan. They even have Texas-themed honky-tonk bars. Everyone who goes to them dresses like Texans (or how they imagine that Texans dress).
• Prior to JFK’s assassination in 1963, TV networks only aired about 15 minutes of news as a requirement for an FCC broadcast license, all at a loss to the networks. The networks ran coverage of the assassination, the aftermath, and the funeral nonstop for days, with no ad breaks. That cost the networks millions of dollars in lost ad revenue, but it garnered them the public’s goodwill, and got folks to tune into the nightly news and other news shows that were gradually added. Over time, new news shows became profitable.
• Amazon expects to roll out 100,000 Rivian electric delivery vans in the US by 2030.
• If you’re in Redding California, you’re closer to Canada than you are to Mexico.
• If you’re in Birmingham Alabama, you’re closer to Canada than you are to Mexico.
• Carole King and Paul Simon met as students at Queens College in New York City.
  
  
  
• A man once faked his own kidnapping at his home by two masked gunmen because he wanted to go out drinking with his friends without his wife's permission. He returned home the next day and claimed that the kidnappers had let him go.
• Saturday Night Fever, released in 1977, was the first movie soundtrack that sold in massive quantities. Prior to Thriller by Michael Jackson, Saturday Night Fever was the best-selling album in music history. In the US, the album was certified 16× Platinum for shipments of at least 16 million units. The album stayed atop the charts for 24 straight weeks and stayed on Billboard's album charts for 120 weeks until March 1980. Three singles from the album reached No. 1 in the US.