Things I learned lately - 20 Feb

• Google Translate now handles 103 languages. That represents 99% of the population.
• Oil is so cheap, even pirates don't want it anymore.
• Many coffee shop coffee drinks have more sugar than a Coke.
• Apparently, Beyonce is black, or something. [snort]
• No North Korean people have access to the internet because the government is concerned that people would see things that would make them feel unfairly critical toward the West, and the government would like to protect the West's reputation by preventing the people from going on the internet.
• The first recorded recipe for apple pie was written in 1381 in England, and called for figs, raisins, pears, and saffron in addition to apples. A recipe for apple pie very similar to today’s recipes appeared in a Dutch cookbook in 1514. So apple pie - not really American per se.
• The 'cinnamon' found in kitchens is actually cassia, derived from Cinnamomum burmannii, a tree native to Indonesia. Of all the Cinnamomum species, this form of cassia, known as Indonesian cassia or Korintje cassia, has the lowest oil content and is therefore the cheapest. In the US, there's no labeling requirement to distinguish cinnamon and cassia, so we know them all as just cinnamon.