Things I learned this week 30 Dec

• Qatar is the world's richest country by GDP per capita. People don’t get out of the car to fill up. A pump attendant does it for you, even during the summer, when it can get up to 50C outside. Gas is cheap - a 4.0L 4x4 SUV costs around $16 to fill up the tank. People in Qatar never pack their own shopping bags, wash their own cars, and many have housemaids who take care of the cleaning, laundry, and in a lot of cases, the children. Eating out is a national pastime; Friday brunches pack enough food in to last you a week, and if you sit outside a fast-food restaurant in your car and beep your horn, someone will come to take your order – and bring it to you when it’s ready.
• BitTorrent makes up 12% of traffic on the internet in North America. Meanwhile, Netflix video traffic accounts for 33% of internet peak traffic. This speaks volumes. Give the consumer what they want - anytime unrestricted access to a large library of content for one low price, and they will take it. Or, they will take it for free.
• You can place a phone call right from within GMail Chat. To anywhere in Canada and the US.
• Daniel Craig got paid $17 million for working on the movie Skyfall.
• Recently, Apple filed a patent to turn an iPhone into a TV remote just by taking a picture of the original physical remote.
• HSBC bank executives who spent a decade laundering billions of dollars of drug cartel money will have to partially defer their bonuses for 5 years as punishment. What would you get as punishment for a drug infraction?
• The Chipmunk Song is the only Christmas song to reach #1 on the Billboard charts.