{"id":41622,"date":"2023-12-30T16:41:42","date_gmt":"2023-12-31T00:41:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.defyperception.net\/wp\/?p=41622"},"modified":"2023-12-30T16:41:42","modified_gmt":"2023-12-31T00:41:42","slug":"things-i-learned-and-found-interesting-in-the-last-week-of-december-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.defyperception.net\/wp\/?p=41622","title":{"rendered":"Things I Learned (and found interesting) in the Last Week of December 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>From kottke&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/kottke.org\/23\/12\/52-interesting-things-i-learned-2023\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/kottke.org\/23\/12\/52-interesting-things-i-learned-2023\">52 Interesting Things I Learned in 2023<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>2. \u201cIf our planet was 50% larger in diameter,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20190429025624\/https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/mission_pages\/station\/expeditions\/expedition30\/tryanny.html\">we would not be able to venture into space<\/a>, at least using rockets for transport.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>3. <a href=\"https:\/\/historynewsnetwork.org\/article\/176762\">Purple Heart medals that were made for the planned (and then cancelled) invasion of Japan in 1945<\/a>\u00a0are still being given out to wounded US military personnel.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>14. Hurricanes don\u2019t\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.iflscience.com\/theres-a-weird-reason-why-hurricanes-never-cross-the-equator-68082\">cross the equator<\/a>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>22. Multicellular life developed on Earth\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1002\/bies.201200143\">more than 25 separate times<\/a>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>26. Colorado is not a rectangle \u2014\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.atlasobscura.com\/articles\/is-colorado-a-rectangle\">it actually has 697 sides<\/a>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>27. Horseshoe crabs are older\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2023-05-definitive-age-saturn-theyre-young.html\">than Saturn\u2019s rings<\/a>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>29. Humans have pumped so much groundwater out of the ground that\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/science\/2023\/06\/27\/groundwater-use-planet-earth-tilt\/\">it\u2019s changed the tilt of the Earth\u2019s axis 31.5 inches to the east<\/a>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>37. I cannot believe this is the first I\u2019ve heard of this: in the original Super Mario Bros.,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/news\/2020\/05\/random_do_you_know_about_super_mario_bros_secret_game_over_continue_trick\">you can continue where you left off in the last game by holding A down when you press Start<\/a>. <br>(<strong>a personal note:<\/strong> I found this infuriating that I&#8217;m only finding out about this in my 40&#8217;s)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>44. The rarest single-game event in baseball is not the perfect game but\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportico.com\/leagues\/baseball\/2023\/mlb-perfect-games-domingo-german-1234727865\/\">hitting two grand slams in one inning<\/a>, which has only been done once in more than 235,000 games.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>45. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencealert.com\/evolution-keeps-making-crabs-and-nobody-knows-why\">Crab-like bodies have evolved at least five separate times<\/a>\u00a0in the past 250 million years.<br>(<strong>a personal note:<\/strong> I think we were maybe intended to evolve to be intelligent crabs)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Also linked from kottke: <a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/magnetic\/52-things-i-learned-in-2023-a3bbb9f9323d\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/magnetic\/52-things-i-learned-in-2023-a3bbb9f9323d\">Tom Whitehall&#8217;s 52 Things I Learned in 2023<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>4. A \u2018payola\u2019 guitar is an electric guitar with four pickups and four output sockets, so that 1950s session players could get paid four times while playing one solo. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-features\/bruce-springsteens-favorite-guitar-the-story-behind-one-of-a-kind-fender-119846\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Allen St John<\/a>]<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>5. Job satisfaction in the US is at a 35-year-high. In 2010, less than 45% of people said they were satisfied with their jobs. In 2022, over 62% said they were, and you need to go back to the 80s to find satisfaction as high as today. Big gains come from work\/life balance and the performance review process. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2023\/05\/12\/job-satisfaction-workplace-us\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Emily Peck<\/a>]<br>(<strong>a personal note:<\/strong> I&#8217;m still trying to wrap my head around this given the industry I work in (non-profit) and coming off the 2021-22 Great Recession.)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>7. 1 in 5 people currently have a disability. 100% of people will have some form of disability in their lifetime. [<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.jim-nielsen.com\/2023\/practical-accessibility\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Jim Nielsen<\/a>]<br>(<strong>a personal note:<\/strong> this is one of my biggest fears in life and getting older in age and discovering new pains, stiffness, tiredness, etc. isn&#8217;t helping my anxiety about this&#8230;)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>16. In the 19th Century, champagne was sweetened depending on local tastes. Russians had 300 grams of sugar added, the British just 50 grams. In 1842 Perrier-Jou\u00ebt introduced unsweetened champagne. It failed and people called it \u2018Brut\u2019, but that\u2019s how all champagne tastes today. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.decanter.com\/wine-news\/shipwreck-champagne-shows-19th-century-europe-s-sweet-tooth-848\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Chris Mercer<\/a>\u00a0&amp;\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.co.uk\/books\/edition\/The_Wine_Bible\/sq94EAAAQBAJ?hl=en&amp;gbpv=1&amp;printsec=frontcover&amp;bsq=In+1846+in+a+radical+move+at+the+time%2C+Perrier-Jouet+made+a+Champagne+without+any+sugar+at+all\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Karen MacNeil<\/a>]<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>31. Washboard sales went up 57% during the pandemic, inspired by \u201cfears of societal collapse and limited laundry service\u201d, although 40% are sold as percussion instruments. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/americas-last-washboard-factory-isnt-ready-to-throw-in-the-towel-11674744553\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Kris Maher<\/a>]<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>32. Only 28 books sold more than 500,000 copies in the US in 2022. Eight of them were by romance novelist Colleen Hoover. [<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JasonColavito\/status\/1620151389363245057\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Jason Colvato<\/a>]<br>(<strong>a personal note:<\/strong> half a million seems like a low threshold to clear&#8211;are we not buying and reading books anymore?)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>43. 2,529 individuals were offered a free online subscription to their local newspaper worth $45. Only 44 subscribed. [<a href=\"https:\/\/papers.ssrn.com\/sol3\/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4502329\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Daniel J. Hopkins<\/a>]<br>(<strong>a personal note:<\/strong> are we, as a society, not reading any more?)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Also linked from kottke: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/12\/05\/special-series\/20-things-that-happened-for-the-first-time-in-2023.html?unlocked_article_code=1.I00.viOe.oyWs_7Xx-u2Q\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/12\/05\/special-series\/20-things-that-happened-for-the-first-time-in-2023.html?unlocked_article_code=1.I00.viOe.oyWs_7Xx-u2Q\">NY Times: 20 Things That Happened for the First Time in 2023<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>2. Cells from two male mice produce live offspring.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>5. Scientists successfully extract rocks from Earth\u2019s mantle.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>15. Microplastics are found in the clouds.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Also linked from kottke: <a href=\"https:\/\/kenthendricks.com\/52-things-i-learned-in-2023\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/kenthendricks.com\/52-things-i-learned-in-2023\/\">Kent Hendricks: 52 things I learned in 2023<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>1. Every iron object made before 1200 BC came from meteorites. (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/abs\/pii\/S0305440317301322\">\u201cBronze Age iron: Meteorite or not? A chemical strategy\u201d<\/a>)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2. Santa\u2019s reindeer are all female. Male reindeer don\u2019t start growing antlers until February, so any reindeer with antlers hauling goods on Christmas Eve wouldn\u2019t be male. (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fda.gov\/animal-veterinary\/animal-health-literacy\/fun-facts-about-reindeer-and-caribou\">FDA<\/a>)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>5. One reason the United States didn\u2019t adopt the metric system was because the ship crossing the Atlantic from France carrying a standard kilogram\u2014yes, a real physical object\u2014requested by Thomas Jefferson in 1793 was blown off course into the Caribbean and captured by pirates. (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/thetwo-way\/2017\/12\/28\/574044232\/how-pirates-of-the-caribbean-hijacked-americas-metric-system\">\u201cHow Pirates Of The Caribbean Hijacked America\u2019s Metric System\u201d<\/a>)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>17. There have been 80,000 recorded UFO sightings since 1906. Four-fifths of extraterrestrials have chosen to visit the United States and likely speak English. (<a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/wlouie1\/UFO-Sightings\">source<\/a>)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>22. When a Walmart Supercenter opens in a town, average grocery prices drop 3%, but competitor revenue drops 16% and average income declines 10% in five years. (<a href=\"https:\/\/static1.squarespace.com\/static\/5e0fdcef27e0945c43fab131\/t\/658762a340266212f9f81134\/1703371446403\/JustinCWiltshire_JMP.pdf\">\u201cWalmart Supercenters and Monopsony Power: How a Large, Low-Wage Employer Impacts Local Labor Markets\u201d<\/a>)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>23. The maximum size of a PDF is 381km \u00d7 381km, roughly half the size of Germany. (<a href=\"https:\/\/news.ycombinator.com\/item?id=36543557\">Hacker News<\/a>)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>27. Food deserts are caused by lack of demand, not lack of supply. There\u2019s a common assumption that food deserts don\u2019t exist because grocery stores avoid certain neighborhoods. But that\u2019s not actually true: food deserts exist because certain neighborhoods don\u2019t want them. (<a href=\"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/qje\/article-abstract\/134\/4\/1793\/5492274?login=false\">\u201cFood Deserts and the Causes of Nutritional Inequality\u201d<\/a>)<br>(<strong>a personal note:<\/strong> I&#8217;m still trying to wrap my head around this. Probably because I&#8217;ve been told\/have read the opposite for so long.)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>29. Tic Tacs are labeled as sugar free even though they are 94% sugar. As long as there\u2019s less than half a gram of sugar, the FDA permits products to be labeled sugar free. Each Tic Tac has 0.49 grams of sugar. (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.simplemost.com\/sneaky-reason-tic-tacs-can-say-sugar-free-really-arent\/\">\u201cThe Sneaky Reason Why Tic Tacs Can Say \u2018Sugar Free\u2019 (When They Really Aren\u2019t)\u201d<\/a>)<br>(<strong>a personal note<\/strong>: I&#8217;ve read this before, but it still bothers me. Each Tic Tac has 5g of sugar.)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>39. Birds are evolving smaller eyes to adapt to the brightness of cities at night. For two species, the Northern Cardinal and Carolina Wren, the eyes of birds in San Antonio are 5% smaller than their rural counterparts. (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.technologynetworks.com\/tn\/news\/urban-light-pollution-linked-to-smaller-eyes-in-birds-379063\">\u201cUrban Light Pollution Linked to Smaller Eyes in Birds\u201d<\/a>)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>45. In areas where people are more likely to divorce, birds are more likely to split up, too! There\u2019s a strong geographic correlation between several human and animal behaviors, including distances traveled, population density, male parental involvement, age of first reproduction, food hoarding, and even divorce. (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kokkonuts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Barsbai_2021.pdf\">\u201cLocal convergence of behavior across species\u201d<\/a>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Also from kottke, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/science\/archive\/2023\/12\/science-facts-that-blew-our-mind-2023\/676959\/?gift=j9r7avb6p-KY8zdjhsiSZxnWQNqkGHzE0eftTAsbaa0\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/science\/archive\/2023\/12\/science-facts-that-blew-our-mind-2023\/676959\/?gift=j9r7avb6p-KY8zdjhsiSZxnWQNqkGHzE0eftTAsbaa0\">The Atlantic: 81 Things That Blew Our Minds in 2023<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>1. Mars has seasons, and in the winter, it\u00a0snows.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>10. You have\u00a0two noses, and you can control them separately via your armpits.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>28. The same molecule that makes cat urine\u00a0smell\u00a0like cat urine is, in lower concentrations, commonly used in air fresheners and household cleaners.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>35. A Dutch man and his family have a perplexing brain condition called\u00a0\u201ccolor agnosia\u201d: They can see colors, but they cannot name them.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>42. One of Saturn\u2019s moons likely has a\u00a0habitable\u00a0ocean.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>46. During the original run of\u00a0<em>Seinfeld<\/em>, the show\u2019s costumers had a hard time sourcing the clothing for Kramer\u2019s wardrobe because his\u00a0quirky style\u00a0had become so popular with the general public that they were buying up all of the vintage clothing that made up his look.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>56. Reports of pediatric melatonin overdoses have increased by 530 percent over the past\u00a0decade.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From kottke&#8217;s 52 Interesting Things I Learned in 2023: Also linked from kottke: Tom Whitehall&#8217;s 52 Things I Learned in 2023: Also linked from kottke: NY Times: 20 Things That Happened for the First Time in 2023: Also linked from kottke: Kent Hendricks: 52 things I learned in 2023: Also from kottke, The Atlantic: 81 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.defyperception.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.defyperception.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.defyperception.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.defyperception.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.defyperception.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41622"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.defyperception.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41624,"href":"https:\/\/www.defyperception.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41622\/revisions\/41624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.defyperception.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.defyperception.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.defyperception.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}