Things I learned lately 24 Mar

• TV manufacturers were no longer hyping 3D TVs at CES this year. Can you say 'dead feature'?
• McDonald's needs to 're-introduce' the Big Mac to its young core customer base because these people weren't around when The Big Mac was promoted in 1974 with its trademark song, so they don't know why it's so special.
• Things coming to a TV near you: natural voice commands; trackpads on remotes; motion sensing built-in to play games; bigger screens (110"); 4K resolution; apps and streaming; connectivity with iPads and such; very thin designs.
• Vienna hosts more international congresses per year than any other world city.
• Tumblr is by far the most popular social network site among teens, beating Facebook.
• A flu vaccine is only 59% effective overall. Vaccines also seem less effective on the elderly.
• "I have noticed that even people who claim everything is predetermined and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road." ~Stephen Hawking
• The Pennsylvania Dutch people are not Dutch. They're German.
• Most alcoholic beverages contain all 13 minerals necessary to sustain life.
• Approximately 1% of the human population is drunk at any one given moment.
• Only the Rubik's cube has sold more than the iPhone.
• Before the eraser was invented, bread was used to remove pencil marks.
• Beijing and Shanghai together have over 500 miles of subway system. China plans to add 800 more miles of subway (in various cities) in the next 2 years. That's a distance similar to Dallas-Chicago. That means that by 2015 there will be over 1900 miles of subway in the country. By comparison, New York has about 230 miles of subway.
• A teen football player's lawyer is arguing that his client's 16 year old brain is not developed enough to know that raping an unconscious person is a bad idea when you're drunk. Also, apparently, silence due to unconsciousness implies consent.