Things I learned lately 22 Oct

• The last Pontiac ever made was a 2010 Pontiac G6 four cylinder, built in Orion Michigan. It was built as a fleet-spec vehicle and titled in Hawaii as a rental vehicle in January 2010. It remained in service for more than a year until it was sent to auction in May 2011 where it was then purchased by a dealership and titled in California with just 27,725 miles on the odometer. 3 months later, it was sold to its last owner who drove it for nearly 60,000 miles before it was reported as a total loss in February 2015. The G6 was then sent to a salvage auction where it was sold for $450—less than 3% of its original MSRP. In February 2016, a year after it was reported as a loss, the G6 was exported to Mexico and the trail went cold. Ironically, the second-to-last Pontiac built was also totaled in 2020 with about 67,000 miles on the odometer.
• A big part of Swedish culture is Fika breaks at 9am and 3pm at work, or anytime if not at work. Fika is a concept that means, “Have cake, coffee and chit-chat.”
• Dabney Coleman auditioned to play the professor on Gilligan’s Island.
• Japan has invented a device that when pointed at your mouth makes it difficult to talk because it sends your voice back to you with a 200 msec delay, which is very disorienting. It’s called SpeechJammer.
• The German word for freckles is "sommersprossen," or "summer sprouts."
• Mountain dew used to mean moonshine before it became a soft drink brand.
• Volvo gave away the 1962 patent for their revolutionary three-point seat belt for free, in order to save lives.