Things I learned lately 13 October

• In July 2012, Cinnabon became the first US franchise to open in Libya.
• The growth of solar energy is up 700% since 2001.
• It's now illegal in California to post naked photos of your ex on the internet.
• The best selling car in Norway is the Tesla Model S. Not the best selling electric car. Not the best selling car with a plug. In September 2013, the Tesla Model S was the best selling car, period. Tesla Motors sold 616 Tesla Model S cars in Norway in September 2013, giving it a 5.1% share of total sales.
• In the 2008 Canadian federal election, 940,000 voters supporting the Green Party nationwide elected not one MP, while fewer Conservative votes in Alberta alone elected 27 MPs.
• In the 2008 Canadian federal election, Conservatives received roughly twice the votes of the Liberals and NDP combined in the prairie provinces, but took seven times as many seats.
• In the 2008 Canadian federal election, the NDP attracted 1.1 million more votes than the Bloc, but the voting system gave the Bloc 49 seats, the NDP 37.
• The Dubai Mall, the largest mall in the world by area, has 600+ stores, a 22-screen movie theatre, a replica of London's Regent Street and an Olympic sized ice skating rink. It is now the world's most visited shopping destination.
• The manual transmission no longer offers better mileage than automatics. (My car has a 7 speed dual clutch automatic transmission and I can attest)
• Dirt particles on a car actually create drag and can affect mileage by as much as 10%.
• Using a smartphone next to a laptop, researchers at MIT and GIT developed a technique for logging keystrokes based on sound and vibration. A smartphone is capable enough to translate typing sounds into actual text by estimating where on a keyboard the stroke landed based on its volume and force. Devices are getting more and more versatile, enabling all kinds of new applications. Be mindful of your security as our technology becomes more and more developed.
• Russian political activist and grand chess master Garry Kasparov doesn't think people offended by recently passed Russian anti-gay laws should protest by boycotting the 2014 Olympics in Sochi. Rather he says, individuals and corporations should openly defy Russian President Vladimir Putin in his own country. One example: Have Coca-Cola, an Olympic sponsor, put a rainbow flag on all of its cans.
• Airbus can manufacture 42 A320 jets per month.
• 'Jumped the shark', an idiom meaning a TV show took an irreversible turn for the worse, is based on an episode of Happy Days from 1977, in which Fonzie goes water-skiing and actually jumps a shark.
• The Tesla that caught fire a few weeks back? The owner is buying another Tesla. The fire episode (the result of a crash) didn't phase him one bit.