Thursday, May 17, 2018

Things I learned lately 17 May


  • Before the 17th century, just 5% of Europeans could read or write. Today, more than 90% of the world under age 25 can read and write.
  • There are only 10 foods that all nutritionists agree are really good for you. Blueberries. Leafy greens. Avocados. Beans. Garlic. Lemon. Chia seeds. Sprouts. Quinoa. Wild salmon.
  • Foxconn, the company that makes iPhones, employs 1.3 million people in China. One factory in Zhengzhou alone, employs 350,000 people.
  • Sunsets on Mars are blue.
  • The 588th Night Bomber Regiment, aka the 'Night Witches', were an all-female group of Russian fliers who went on bombing raids by the light of the moon in plywood biplanes. The pioneering women dropped more than 23,000 tons of bombs on Nazi targets, becoming a crucial Soviet asset in winning World War II. The Germans nicknamed them the Nachthexen, or 'night witches', because the whooshing noise their wooden planes made resembled that of a sweeping broom. This sound was the only warning the Germans had. The planes were too small to show up on radar or on infrared locators. They never used radios, so radio locators couldn't pick them up either. 
  • Turpentine was used as medicine around the 1820s. We know better now, of course.

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