Things I learned lately - 3 Jan

• In Germany some people play a popular game called 'headis'. It's played like ping-pong, using a ping-pong table, but they use a soccer ball and can only hit the ball with their head.
• The Savino wine preservation system lets you open a bottle of wine, drink some, put the rest in the carafe and a float keeps the oxygen out and therefore keeps the wine drinkable for days.
• Apple Pay's security is its biggest strength. Unlike paying with a credit or debit card, Apple Pay doesn't show merchants your payment information when you buy something. It uses a digital account number called a "token" to tell the merchant you're good for the purchase. That information is passed onto your cardholder, who charges you for what you're buying.
• The MPAA is secretly trying to revive SOPA and make Google the scapegoat.
• AT&T collected $24 million in fees for wiretapping for the US government between 2007-2011.
• The average rent in NYC is $3017 per month (compared to $1000 in the rest of the US).
• Thomas Jefferson wrote the first (known) recipe for ice cream in the US. Yeah, THAT Thomas Jefferson.
• At Rick Moonen's RM Seafood, a restaurant at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, they feature an $18 sampling platter called 'Ricks's Tasting Game', featuring 16 flavours of sorbets and ice creams. You eat it blindfolded. If you can guess all of the flavours, you pay nothing.
• The population of California exceeds the states of Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Minnesota - combined.
• Prevent a pot of water from boiling over by placing a wooden spoon across the top (as long as it's not over-filled).
• New Jersey has the most 24-hour diner restaurants per capita in the world.