Saturday, April 12, 2014

Things I learned lately - 12 April


  • Washington DC has de-criminalized possession of up to an ounce of marijuana. Get caught with less than an ounce and the fine is $25.
  • Once again, the "piracy-stricken" motion picture association has had a banner year, with box office revenue breaking all records (as they've done in most recent years). The biggest gains this year come from China - a market condemned by the studios as a hive of piracy.
  • The difference in time between when the Tyrannosaurus Rex lived and when the Stegosaurus lived is greater than the difference in time between when the T-Rex lived and now.
  • You can't hum if you're clamping your nose closed.
  • Volvo, Audi and who knows which other car manufacturers are currently working on a self-parking feature that would park the car automatically after you get out. That's right, it would be able to drive and park itself in the nearest parking spot without you. The advantage is that it could pick a spot that is otherwise too narrow to open the doors. I'm guessing an app would be used to either find your car later, or tell it to come to where you are now.
  • Apparently a 180 mile canal is being built through Nicaragua that will rival the Panama canal. Nobody knows where the money is coming from, but many suspect it will be financed by China.
  • What was a size 16 (for women's clothing) in the 1950s would today be an 8 today. That's because in the 1980s, the Dept of Commerce allowed the clothing industry to abandon the uniform standard sizes and adopt numbers that would stroke womens' egos.
  • The company that supplies audiobooks to libraries has finally agreed to get rid of DRM and issue the audiobooks in DRM-free mp3 format. This is a major win for libraries.
  • Based on new data from the Kepler planet-hunting spacecraft, estimates suggest there could be as many as 60 billion planets with conditions that support life just in our Milky Way galaxy alone.
  • Jalapeno peppers developed their hot spicy-ness to deter animals from eating them. I guess that didn't work out so well, huh?


3 comments:

Retro Blog said...

You can too hum with if you open your mouth.

Karl Plesz said...

I wouldn't exactly call that humming though.

Retro Blog said...

Agree more like wordless singing without the nasal component.