Things I learned this week 18 Mar 2012

• In 1980, CEOs of large US companies received an average of $624,996 in annual compensation, or 42X the pay of typical factory workers. In 2010, CEO pay had skyrocketed to $10.8 million, or 319X the median worker's pay.
• The use of bitumen was important in creating Egyptian mummies. The word mummy is derived from the Arab word mūmiyyah, which means bitumen.
• Environmentalists refer to oil sands as 'tar sands', claiming that the petroleum industry changed the name to make it sound nicer, but in reality, oil sands is the more technically correct term. The sand contains oil, not tar. If you want to be most accurate, the sand contains bitumen.
• Australians withdrawing cash from an ATM machine could soon avoid the out-of-network fees in exchange for watching a commercial.
• Belgian copyright collecting society SABAM, are demanding that public libraries pay royalties when volunteers read to groups of small children. €250 per year from each library.
• Dick Cheney is afraid of Canada. He cancelled his Toronto visit because it's too dangerous.
• Li-Fi is the transmission of wireless data using LEDs. It transfers data quicker by varying the intensity of light. Li-Fi can also be used in hospitals and schools because there's no radio waves.
• A POTATO is a person over thirty acting twenty one.
• 35 countries (and counting) have banned plastic shopping bags. Canada is not one of them.
• The police in Canada want to pay for the new online spying bill with a tax on your internet bills.
• Cambridge University scientists are using picosecond pulses of a green laser that passes through the cellulose in the paper, but vaporizes the toner. This is laser-ablating the toner off of sheets of previously printed paper, leaving them ready to be reused.
• The average member of Congress gets a 1,452% salary hike when she or he leaves office and becomes a corporate lobbyist.