In Case You Missed It: 4/4/16 Is a Square Root Day, the French Government will Pave Its Roads with Solar Panels—and More!

WORLD

4/4/16 is a Square Root Day. Only nine days in each century qualify, and the next one occurs in nine years.*

BOLIVIA

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Lake Poopó, formerly the country's second-largest lake, has nearly dried up because of a combination of drought, water use for agriculture and mining, and the shrinking of Andean glaciers that serve as its source. The remains of the lake have been declared a disaster site.

FRANCE

The French government announced it will “pave” 1,000 kilometers of public roads with solar panels. Installed over the next five years, the high-tech streets could supply electricity to about 8 percent of the country's population.

NEPAL

Few people will ever summit Mount Everest, but virtual-reality studio Sólfar aims to bring more of us closer to the experience. This spring the company will release software for VR headsets that offers a danger-free trek up the earth's highest peak.

NETHERLANDS

The Dutch national police partnered with a raptor-training company to add eagles to their antidrone arsenal.

Belarus

The country now owns its first satellite, Belintersat-1. It joins Laos, Venezuela and Nigeria in operating telecommunications satellites built—and launched—in China.

*Editor's Note (6/3/16): This sentence from the print article was edited after it was posted online to correct an error.

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