Things I learned this week 11 Dec

• A 20 year old Brazilian female student (Catarina Migliorini) auctioned her virginity off for $780,000 with the help of a filmmaker from Australia. No word on how much the filmmaker takes of this money, who is making a documentary of the story (but not filming the act).
• In Finland, traffic fines are based not only on the severity of the offense, but also your income. Fines in the tens of thousands are not uncommon.
• The Dubai café chain Cafe2Go has begun to make its lattes and cappuccinos with camel's milk, an old Bedouin staple that's booming in the UAE.
• The outline or the border of your lips is called the vermillion border and it is a special feature limited to humans.
• We didn't even know Antarctica existed until the 1820s.
• Potatoes were first domesticated 7-10,000 years ago in Peru and Bolivia. China now makes more potatoes than any other country.
• The US EPA estimates there are over 100 million exit signs in use, consuming 30–35 billion kWh of electricity annually, or the output of five or six 1,000 MW power plants.
• A 2005 study in Histopathology suggests that doctors still misdiagnose fatal diseases about a third of the time.
• Early in the Star Trek series, both the Klingon and Vulcan languages were initially very crudely developed by James Doohan (Scotty).
• More than 46 million Americans rely on food stamps.
• State with the highest percentage of workers who are in the military - Hawaii.
• Rush is finally being inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame. Yes still hasn't been nominated.