Monday, November 26, 2012

Things I learned this week 26 Nov

  • You can't get farther from land than a point in the Pacific Ocean known as 'Point Nemo'. It's 2,688 kilometres from the nearest land. Ducie Island, to the north; Motu Nui to the northeast; and Maher Island to the south.
  • One of the reasons Google is positioned to weather the shift in online user changes is that it has a financial stake in both search (web based) and mobile apps. There is a documented shift in the search for information from the web, using sites like Yahoo and Google, to app-based information gathering a-la Yelp and other mobile apps. This is not good news for companies like Yahoo or Microsoft. But it rocks for companies like Apple, Amazon and any great app company.
  • Scientifically proven ways to happiness: Smile more. Be in a romantic relationship. Have at least 10 good friends. Commute less than 20 minutes each way. Sleep 6+ hours per night. Go to church or some other spiritual activity. Stop defending / pushing your views. Try new things. Spend money on others.
  • Lenovo (China) is now the leading PC maker, ousting HP from the top spot.
  • On a Mac, which uses OS X, when you enter dictation mode, the computer's fans turn off.
  • The first country that will be lost (entirely) to rising sea levels, Kiribati, is already planning the complete, permanent evacuation of its people.
  • Doritos are good for kindling if you can't find anything else.
  • 2010 is the first year that Christopher Walken wasn't in a movie since 1974.
  • Slimer, the green ghost was never mentioned by a name in the movie Ghostbusters. The green goblin only got named once the animated cartoon came out.
  • One tire for a dump truck like those used in the Alberta oil sands is worth $45,000 each. They're 13 feet in diameter and weigh 12,000 pounds.
  • Joacquin Phoenix thinks the Oscars are B.S. and doesn't want to be a part of something that pits people against each other. Anthony Hopkins feels the same way.

1 comment:

Retro Blog said...

Large tires reminds me of when my father worked for Idaho Power Company on the Hell's Canyon dam project. We saw large dump trucks and begged our father for one of their inner tubes so we could make a swimming pool. Pretty good eh?
Never got an inner tube the all the adults dammed up the creek in back so we could have a swimming hole.