Things I learned lately - 26 July

• You can add "+anything" to your email address and it will still work. This can be good for filtering emails (for example, you could set up a folder for all emails sent to "youremail+recipes@gmail.com").
• There's a "Manual" feature in Google Translate that lets you draw characters or symbols. So, you could draw that Chinese character and find out what it means!
• In Canada, the average minimum wage was $10.14 in 2013 and the 1975 wage, expressed in 2013 dollars, was $10.13.
• Companies not expected to survive 2015: Aeropostale; Blackberry; Time Warner Cable (*Comcast); Shutterfly; Russell Stover (*Lindt); Alaska Airlines (*?); Zynga (*?); Hillshire Brands (*Tyson?); DirecTV (*AT&T); Lululemon. (*)=Will probably get bought up by.....
• There are 10 times as many electric vehicle charging stations in the US now (20,000+) than there was 3 years ago.
• WalMart may match the prices of its competitors, but it reserves the right NOT to match prices with itself. In other words, if you find a cheaper price at WalMart online, or at another WalMart store, the store doesn't have to match it.
• Starting 15 July 2014, New Yorkers can get anything from restaurants, grocery stores, and liquor stores delivered to them for free with a delivery service app called WunWun. The idea is that WunWun partners with enough restaurants and stores to give WunWun some sort of kick back. Then that money makes up for the money lost from orders at non-partner restaurants and stores.
• Google sold 2.1 million Chromebooks in 2013. They operate on the Google Chrome operating system which leverages all data being kept in the cloud. The drawback is the need for constant internet access. The benefit is cost ($300).
• The key to feeding the world's population may be to start eating insects. 80% of the world already does it, but the western world has a problem eating bugs. Companies like Bitty Foods are helping by making cookies, each made with at least 15 crickets - but you'd never know because the bugs have been reduced to a flour-like powder. Even if we'd have to farm insects, our greenhouse gas emissions alone would reduce dramatically.
• A single almond requires over a gallon of water to farm and produce. In California, where 80% of the world's almonds are grown, farmers now have to drill 2500 feet into the ground to get water for their almond crop.