Things I learned lately 25 January

• In 2013, 3 million people pledged $480 million to Kickstarter projects.
• Tesla Motors have developed an automated battery replacement system, created to swap out dead batteries in their electric cars for fresh, fully charged ones in 90 seconds.
• Taxis in Shanghai are convenient, if you don’t mind the rush of adrenaline you’ll get from the almost unlawful speed. To communicate with your driver, who will likely not understand English, the Magic Number is your salvation. In each cab, a sticker on the back of the driver’s seat contains a number which connects you to a free hotline. You simply dial, choose your language, mention the address to the phone representative and then hand the phone over to the taxi driver. We need that in some North American cities.....
• Detroit went from having a population of 1,849,568 in 1950 to 713,777 in 2010.
• Korean telecom company SK Telecom recently unveiled something called LTE-Advanced. It's a super fast cell network for phones, allowing you to download 100 MB per second. That's likely faster than your current home Internet speed.
• When to use the iPhone camera's HDR function: Landscapes; Outdoor portraits; Close-ups; In dim light. When NOT to use HDR: Motion; When contrast is needed; To get vivid colours; When needing flash; when wanting quick, successive shots.
• Less than 20% of 18-29 year olds think it's unacceptable to answer the phone during dinner with a friend. Between 40-50% of those age 18-29 think it's not cool to check Twitter or Facebook at dinner. Only about 22% think you shouldn't text during meals. On a date, almost 60% said don't answer the phone. 60% also said just check FB or Twitter or texts while your date is in the bathroom.
• Seeding the Free Parking spot in Monopoly with a $500 bill is not part of the official Monopoly rules. The other way Monopoly was played wrong is that if someone lands on an available property and chose not to buy it at the list price, you're supposed to have an auction on the property for the other players (if they're interested).
• In the US, in some cities, you can now rent some very snazzy cars from Hertz. For instance, an Audi R8 will set you back $1000 per day, with a $3/mile over 75 miles charge. I wonder what the extra insurance on that would be?
• First car in the world to have a 3-point seat belt, air bags and anti-lock brakes? Mercedes S-Class.
• The abbreviation i.e. stands for id est, meaning 'that is', while e.g. stands for exempli gratia, meaning 'for example'.
• Geographic north, magnetic north and geomagnetic north are three different places.
• The fetus actually starts to pee after it is 2 months old. That's right, it pees (a tiny bit) into its amniotic fluid.
• When you yawn and stretch at the same time, it's called pandiculating.