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Happy New Year, and greetings from Egypt. I hope everyone had a fruitful 2024. Here is this month’s edition of ‘Things I Learned’.

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Things I Learned

  1. In 1870, the population of Idaho was 29% Chinese. (source)
  2. The song “Sweet Caroline”, by Neil Diamond, refers to Caroline Kennedy. (source)
  3. The median age of a US home is 40 years old. (source)
  4. Babe Ruth hit more homers in Jimmy Carter's lifetime than any currently active player. (source)
  5. The Great Pyramid of Giza, built in 2250 BC remained the world’s tallest structure for 3500 years until the construction of the Lincoln Cathedral in 1311. (source)
  6. Out of the 13 presidents of South Korea, only one has not been impeached, imprisoned, overthrown, or assassinated. (source)
  7. Wojtek was a brown bear who was enlisted as a private in the Polish Army during World War II and eventually rose to the rank of corporal. (source)
  8. In the US the majority (81%) of eggs sold are white; whereas in Europe the majority of eggs sold are brown. (source)
  9. There is no evidence that cell signals from a phone not on airplane mode interfere with aircraft signals. (source)
  10. The oldest bond in the world — issued to rebuild a dike outside of Utrecht, Netherlands — is 400 years old, and pays €13.61 a year. (source)
  11. The busiest domestic airline route in 2024 was Atlanta - Orlando. The busiest international airline route was Hong Kong - Taipei. (source)
  12. BYU requires students to be clean shaven. (source)
  13. Global revenue generated by the gaming industry is 7x larger than the revenue generated by recorded music, and is larger than the global revenue generated by the music and movie industries combined (source).
  14. The “Jeb” in Jeb Bush is an acronym for his name, John Ellis Bush. (source)
  15. Popcorn is not served at the Cannes Film Festival. (source)
  16. The best selling single (physical copy) of all time is Bing Crosby’s "White Christmas. (source)
  17. The reason that Arkansas and Kansas are pronounced differently is that Arkansas took the French pronunciation and Kansas took the native Algonquian pronunciation of the same root word. (source)