Tuesday, May 07, 2013

Things I learned lately 7 May

  • It turns out that a proton (found in the nucleus of atoms) is only 0.84087 femtometres across, not 0.8768 femtometres. I know, I'm shocked too. [a femtometre is a millionth of a billionth of a metre]
  • Under Canada's newly gutted environmental laws, anyone who wants to comment on the upcoming hearings on the new Enbridge oil pipeline must fill in a ten-page questionnaire and submit a CV.
  • The top 10 native countries that are the source of Canada's immigrants are the UK; China; India; Philippines; Italy; USA; Hong Kong; Germany; Poland; Vietnam.
  • The Chinese have built a fully functional cell phone with Bluetooth, mp3 player, OLED display and quad-band GSM for $12.Incredibly, it's actually worth less than $2. You can buy it at Shenzhen's Mingtong Digital Mall. 
  • In 1982, the median income for the bottom 99% of wage earners in Canada was $28,000 and the top 1% earned a median of $191,600. In 2010, the median income for the bottom 99% of wage earners in Canada was $28,400 and the top 1% earned a median of $283,400. 21% of the top 1% earners were women, up from 11% in 1982. Calgary is Canada's most unequal city in terms of earnings, as its top 1% earns 26X as much as the bottom 10%.
  • The percentage of Canadians who only watch TV content online (no cable TV) is now at 5%.
  • Netflix plans to release all 14 new episodes of Arrested Development at once (never mind all the other new content), because "It's the future of television. The days of 'managed dissatisfaction' are over."
  • The average Apple retail store generates $5600 per square foot. 
  • The world's largest mobile provider is China Mobile. It has almost 700 million subscribers and counting.
  • Corporate profit margins are higher than they've ever been before. That also means they're not investing in their employees and products as much. Wages as a percentage of the GDP just hit an all-time low. Lastly, the employment to population ratio has collapsed. These kinds of conditions typically result in social revolutions. Just sayin'.

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