Things I learned lately - 21 Dec

• Lowe's is testing robots in one of their chains of hardware stores that can scan items customers brought with them to assist with finding a match. The robots can also tell a customer if an item is in stock and guide them to the exact location in the store.
• Australian researchers have worked out a way to convert more than 40% of the sunlight hitting a solar panel system into electricity, double the average rate, and the highest efficiency ever reported.
• The most famous food in Iceland is hot dogs from Baejarins Beztu Pylsur in Reykjavik.
• 76.6% of American convicts released from prison re-offend. Research has shown that they are angry, not rehabilitated. In Norway, only 20% of convicts released from prison re-offend, because 80% are rehabilitated.
• Hipsters are now decorating their beards for Christmas. No, really.
• Unlike on a computer, closing apps on an iOS device won't speed up the device, because except for apps that make use of 'background app refresh', the other apps not on the main screen are suspended and not using CPU power at all.
• "Excuse me, while I kiss this guy" is an example of a 'mondegreen'.
• Finland has a 'wife carrying' contest that has its roots in gang-initiation-women-stealing in the 1800s.
• Michael Bolton did a bit of hair metal before he became known for his pop ballads.
• Classically trained pianist and composer Tori Amos started out as the front woman for a cheesy 1980s synth pop band called "Y Kant Tori Read".
• The Russians built a memorial to those who lost their lives in America on 9/11. It's called To the Struggle Against World Terrorism and is 100 feet high with a 40 foot stainless steel teardrop. It's in Bayonne NJ.
• Apparently, furnishing every home in America with solar panels on their roofs would cost less than the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, plus save taxpayers more than $162 billion per year.
• The Canadian military's Ombudsman suggests that more than 1/3 of military members posted to the Air Force base at Cold Lake Alberta take second jobs just to make ends meet.