Things I learned lately - 26 April

• There is a new moon forming on the edge of Saturn's rings. That we are witnessing it blows my mind.
• Canada is considered an energy superpower, yet almost 25% of our disposable income goes to pay for energy costs.
• A company in Israel is trying to make an absorbent material out of jellyfish called hydromash. It could be made into napkins, medical sponges, diapers and paper towels and is many times more absorbent than current paper towels. The material is biodegradable in 30 days. This would not only aid in reducing landfill material but also help reduce the explosion of jellyfish population in today's oceans.
• Flashing your headlights at oncoming traffic to warn of the presence of police is now protected as free speech in Oregon.
• Frogs or toads won't give you warts, but shaking hands with someone who has warts can. The human papillomavirus is what gives people warts, and it is unique to humans.
• Ostriches do not stick their heads in the sand when threatened. Actually they don't bury their heads at all. When threatened, ostriches flop on the ground and play dead.
• Only a small percentage of people with Tourette syndrome randomly yell out swear words — it actually encompasses a lot more than that, including involuntary movements and different sound tics. The swearing tic is called coprolalia.
• The misconception that educated Europeans at the time of Columbus believed in a flat Earth, and that his voyages refuted that belief, has been referred to as the Myth of the Flat Earth. Virtually all scholars of that period maintained that the Earth was round, not flat. The myth that people thought the Earth was flat was started in the 1940s by the Members of the Historical Association.
• Sharks can and do get cancer. The myth that they don't was created by I. William Lane to sell shark cartilage as a cancer treatment.
• The average annual wage in San Mateo county, where Facebook is based, is $168,000 per year. That makes it the best-paying county in the United States.
• Villain used to mean 'farm labourer'.