Things I learned lately - 14 Feb

• Major record labels are keeping 73% of the money they get from Spotify. Artists get a measly 10%.
• Private Car Insurance company Industrial Alliance has had a system in place in Quebec, since 2012, where young drivers can volunteer to put GPS tracking in their cars to monitor their driving habits. 80% of those who volunteered got rebates on their insurance for good driving behaviours and most likely, it affected their driving because they knew they were being monitored. The province's SAAQ will soon be offering this voluntary project to all Quebec drivers. The information is not only used to monitor driving behaviour, but also to build statistical data on driving conditions around the province.
• Target Canada's employees getting 16 weeks of severance is a total fabrication. Workers are being told they will have to work during those 16 weeks. That's not called severance, that's called salary.
• New York City has more than 7000 homes worth MORE than $5 million.
• Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Taboola are paying the owner of Adblock Plus to unblock ads on their websites at a fee of "30% of the additional ad revenues" they would have made were ads unblocked. In other words, those blocked ads are only blocked because the companies they represent don't pay.
• In 2009, 80% of Norwegians under 30 admitted to downloading music illegally. In 2014, that had dropped to 4%. The reason? Music streaming services.
• Salt Lake City decided it would be smarter and more humane to spend $11K/year each to house 17 chronically homeless people and provide them with social workers. Rather than waste an average of $16,670/year per person to imprison them and treat them at emergency rooms.
• Lithuania was the first Baltic state to win its freedom from the Soviet Union. It was also one of the last pagan areas of Europe to adopt Christianity.
• Super Dave Osborne's (real name: Bob Einstein) younger brother is Albert Brooks.
• On the latest Macbook Air, if you hit the Caps Lock key, nothing happens. In order to prevent accidental keystrokes, the Caps Lock only comes on if you hold the key for a bit longer.
• In Quebec, the Rice Krispies mascots Snap, Crackle and Pop are named Cric, Crac and Croc.