Things I learned lately - 17 Aug

• The original Mr Potato Head had kids sticking face parts onto a real potato.
• Captain Kangaroo agreed to feature Play Doh on his show, which is how it became well known.
• Trisha Prabhu, a 13-year-old from Chicago, won a spot as one of Google's 15 Global Science Fair finalists for her project to prevent teens from posting hurtful comments. The science is simple: Teens are impulsive and, because of their brain structure, more likely to post hurtful messages without pausing to think about the consequences. If teens are forced to take a moment of reflection before posting a mean comment, they won't do it. Her system, Rethink, prompts students who would post a mean comment to think about how it might affect its target. In 93% of her trials, the comment wasn't posted. She wants to turn this concept into an app.
• Tanned skin is so frowned upon in China that women wear face masks (face-kini) to the beach. The reason for the bad connotation of tanning is that it makes you look like a manual labourer, farmer or peasant.
• Hong Kong has 1268 skyscrapers. By comparison, Calgary has 52. Toronto has 210.
• Vancouver has a mission to become the greenest city in the world by 2020. They have already reduced water consumption by 20% and 41% of people walk or bike around.
• Munich Germany has set a goal to become 100% energy sustainable by 2025. It's already 37% of the way there.
• The (supposedly) most hated NHL team in North America, Eurasia and Australia is the Boston Bruins. In Africa, it's the Winnipeg Jets and in South America, it's the Montreal Canadiens.
• London has 72 billionaires, the most of any city.
• 40% of London is covered in green space
• The Shard in London stands 1,004 feet. Even though it is the tallest building in the European Union, it is only the 65th-tallest building in the world.
• China's smog-plagued capital Beijing has announced plans to ban the use of coal by the end of 2020
• The top 5 restaurants by sales (US) are McDonald's; Subway; Starbucks; Wendy's; and Burger King.
• The US is short 30,000 truck drivers.