Things I learned lately 10 September

• America supplied cigarettes to military men during World War II. Philip Morris and other tobacco suppliers reported selling 290 billion smokes in 1943. In order to relieve boredom and improve the morale of fighting men, cigarettes came standard inside K-ration boxes along with candy and gum. If young soldiers and sailors wanted more, cigarettes were just 50 cents a carton or a nickel a pack.
• Orson Welles' 1938 radio play War of the Worlds didn't cause mass hysteria in the United States. You may have heard that millions of Americans were tricked into thinking that aliens had invaded Earth, but in reality, "the supposed panic was so tiny as to be practically immeasurable on the night of the broadcast." Newspapers covered the story gratuitously, hoping to strike a blow against radio, the popularity of which had carved into their profits. But very few people actually tuned into the broadcast, and even fewer earnestly believed what they were hearing. Anecdotes about the panicked reactions of the public were later disproven.
• In 2019, Pope Francis received a bottle of Oban malt whiskey while visiting Scottish priests, and declared it to be 'the real holy water'. The BBC captured the footage for a documentary, which was censored by the Vatican.
• 100 producers are responsible for over 70% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions.
• Rick James (of Super Freak fame) once worked with Neil Young in a band called The Mynah Birds in the mid 1960s.