Things I learned lately New Year's Eve

• Researchers discovered that petting a dog before a brief separation from the owner may have a positive effect, making the dog calmer during the separation itself.
• In Spain, it's customary to eat 12 grapes right at midnight on New Year's Eve, representing good luck for each of the coming 12 months.
• You'll notice a common feature in large buildings near the water in Hong Kong - giant holes in the centre of the building. It's a feng shui thing. They're called dragon gates and they allow dragons to fly from the mountains to the sea through them. This allows positive energy to flow through the building.
• Voyager I is zipping along at 61,000 km/h (17 km/s) and is currently 18,800,000,000 km from earth. The Parker Solar Probe would leave Voyager in the dust though, as it rounds the sun at 700,000 km/h (194 km/s).
• In China, a new Starbucks opens every 15 hours.
• Starbucks didn't do well in the Australian market due to rapid expansion. In 2008, they had as many as 87 outlets but closed a bunch, leaving only 26 by year end. There are 54 in 2020. On the other hand, a coffee chain that got its start in Chicago but is now based down under, Gloria Jean's, has more than 400 locations in Australia. They attribute their success to a more Aussie focussed menu.
• Musical notes have names thanks to a 6th century Roman philosopher named Anicius Boethius.
• The Charlie Brown Christmas Special, featuring the greatest jazz soundtrack in television history, was commissioned by Coca Cola in 1965.
• The geniuses at CBS wanted a laugh track on The Charlie Brown Christmas Special, but Charles Schulz would have none of that.
  
  
  
• The language the aliens speak together in Men in Black is ‘Huttese’, the language Jabba the Hutt speaks in the Star Wars films.
• In the movie Interstellar (2014), the black hole was so scientifically accurate it took about 100 hours to render each frame in the physics and VFX engine. Meaning every second you see took about 100 days to render the final copy.
• Did anyone notice in Deadpool 2 that RBG's headshot featured in the X-Force squad audition scene?
• In Maleficent (2014), the young Aurora was played by Angelina Jolie’s daughter Vivienne. The 5-year-old got the part because she was the only child who wasn’t terrified of Jolie in her Maleficent makeup. Several other younger children auditioned and wouldn’t go near her.