Things I learned lately 8 April

• In the Iliad, Helen of Troy is described as being so beautiful she had a "face that launched a thousand ships". In a nod to that, there is a humorous unit of measurement named after her. One helen is the beauty it takes to trigger the launch of a thousand ships and, if you're looking to measure the beauty of someone more modest in appearance, you can even measure using millihelens—increments of beauty equivalent to one ship launch.
• Japan has overnight luxury sleeper buses called Dream Sleepers. You take your shoes off before boarding. Each seat is a private room and there are only 11 on the whole bus. Each seat is a fully reclining 'zero gravity' seat. 
• When The Band finally got around to taking the stage to perform their material, Robbie Robertson had developed stage fright because of his experiences touring with Bob Dylan and being booed every night. He needed a hypnotist to calm him down.
• After General George S Patton toured the liberated Buchenwald Concentration Camp in Germany, he ordered the mayor of Weimar to bring 1,000 civilians to Buchenwald from the middle and upper classes. The Germans had to walk 25 kilometres roundtrip under armed American guard and were shown the crematorium and other evidence of Nazi atrocities. The Americans wanted to ensure that the German people would take responsibility for Nazi crimes, instead of dismissing them. Gen. Dwight Eisenhower also invited two groups of Americans to tour the camp in mid-April 1945; journalists and editors from some of the principal U.S. publications, and then a dozen members of the Congress from both the House and the Senate.
• Octopus have copper-based blood instead of iron-based, which makes it blue.
• Gary Oldman is 13 days younger than Gary Numan.