Things I learned lately 13 August

• The Burj Khalifa isn't connected to a sewage system, so all the sewage (15 tonnes) is carried away in trucks.
• Around two thirds of all cargo aircraft in use today were converted from used passenger models.
  
  
  
• The Bulgarian St. Stephen Church with its richly ornamented façade on the shores of the Golden Horn in Istanbul, Turkey, is made of cast iron.
• Most Scandinavian parents think that it's healthier to expose their children to as much fresh air as possible. Therefore, they leave them outside to take their naps.
• Stenographers can write 225 words a minute.
• Masks on airplanes generate oxygen by triggering a chemical reaction. If pressure in the cabin is disturbed and masks drop, tugging the mask causes a firing pin to ignite a small explosion in an ‘O2 candle’ where Sodium Chlorate and Potassium Percholorate combine to make Oxygen gas.
• A peeled orange sinks in water, but not an unpeeled orange. That's because the peel is porous and traps air, which makes it buoyant.
• France will be offering its residents €2,500 (USD$2,975) to trade their old car and get an electric bicycle to boot. Lawmakers in France have approved the measure in a preliminary vote. France would be the first nation in the world to give money in exchange for old cars.
• After the Civil War, the US briefly considered moving the US capitol to St. Louis.
• You won't find school buses in Europe. For one thing, public transit is ubiquitous.
• The spire on top of the Empire State Building was meant as an anchoring point for airships (blimps).