Things I learned lately 11 August

• Oil shipments by rail in Canada are up 28000% since 2009. Not a typo...
• The average markup on bottled water in a store is 4000%. That's not a typo either.
• It is suggested that if McDonald's restaurants (US) doubled the wages of their employees (to $15 per hour), the Big Mac would rise in price $0.68. It was also argued that they could just take less profit. In 2011 McDonald's profit was $5.5 billion.
• Intel, which up to now has been making computer chips, formed Intel Media, to try and upend the pay-TV business. Their plans include a server farm that would record every TV show aired, and store it in 'the cloud' for at least three days. With an Intel-designed set-top box, people wouldn't have to own DVRs or even plan to record programs.
• A soccer player will run 7 miles on average during a game.
• Less than 0.1% of North Koreans have access to the internet.
• There are 338,189 foreign workers employed in Canada.
• Because of climate change, turbulence on trans-Atlantic flights could increase 10-40% in strength and 40-170% in frequency by 2050.
• Researchers at Wake Forest University are developing a fabric that will generate electricity from both heat and vibration in the order of around one milliwatt per square centimeter of fabric.
• Austin Texas is the next US city to get Google Fibre. Bastards! Google Fibre provides 1Gb/s internet access, typically 75-100X faster than cable broadband.
• In 1836, Richard E. Locke claimed that an astronomer had discovered life on the moon, including bat-men, moon maidens (with luna-moth wings), moon bison, etc.
• 1998-2004, 50% of the US Senate left to become lobbyists. 42% of the House of Representatives left to become lobbyists. The average increase in salary for those who became lobbyists was 1452%.
• The CEOs of Bell Canada (BCE), Rogers and Telus earned a combined total of $24 million in salary in 2012.