Things I learned lately - 3 December

• My Sweet Lord was an immediate hit but also a controversy. George Harrison was accused of copying its melody from the Chiffons’ 1963 song He’s So Fine. Eventually, the United States district court ruled that Harrison was guilty of subconscious plagiarism, and Harrison developed an extreme paranoia about songwriting for many years. 
• When 911 emergency phone number first came out, it was referred to as "nine-eleven". They changed it to "nine-one-one" so that certain people wouldn't waste precious time looking for the eleven button.
• 6 million Americans have stopped paying their car loans.
• India's total installed solar electricity generating capacity is now more than 10 GW. That would be as if all of Alberta's electricity was powered by solar. Or that car from Back to the Future....
• Pete Christlieb from the 'Tonight Show' band plays sax on Deacon Blues and FM by Steely Dan.
• There are about 30,000 roundabouts in France, more than any country in the world.
• From 1066 until 1362, French was the official language of England.
• France was the first country with a public transport system. In the 1660s, 'five floor carriages' were a system of horse-drawn carriages circulating at a fixed time and linking various Paris areas.
• If you slide a fork behind a nail head on a wall, with the handle sticking up, you can slide a picture frame wire over the fork handle. Let the fork guide the wire down and behind the nail head. Then just remove the fork. 
• French construction firm Vinci, worth 35 billion Euros, briefly lost 20% of its share value due to a purely fake press release by someone, claiming the CFO was sacked and the company mis-stated earnings.