The 2005 Energy Policy Act exempts drilling companies involved in fracking from almost all regulations designed to protect the environment. – Source

The world's oldest known computer program that is still in use has been in service since 1958. It is run by the US Department of Defense to track contracts and payments. It is written in COBOL.

Source

The letters in Fine print at the bottom can be rearranged to spell Often the important bit.

7 new earth like planets found with the TRAPPIST telescope(Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope) near a star called TRAPPIST-1 in aquarius.
Only Belgian astronomers could have come up with such a name : See Here

BTW: Great thing Dani, that fullscreen mode. :)

commented: Thanks +0
commented: And 3 in the Goldilocks zone, apparently. +0

At the beginning of the 20th century, Nikola Tesla stated that we should move to other energy sources such as solar and wind rather than non-renewable coal and oil. Edison, on the other hand, argued that coal and oil would easily supply all our energy needs for at least 50,000 years.

From a recent Belgian newspaper we eat 340.000 chickens, 286.000 fish, 15.000 pigs, 8.900 rabbits, 2.400 sheep, 1.800 cows and calfs and 105 horses a day. We Belgians are with about 11 milion people.

Only one person involved in the Iran-Contra scandal actually served prison time. Admiral John Poindexter, Colonel Oliver North's superior, and national security adviser to President Ronald Reagan, had had a street in Odon, Indiana renamed after him. Bill Breeden, a former minister, stole the street sign in protest, an act for which he was arrested and imprisoned. source

I learned more facts in a day than in a year of life. Thanks for this topic, I will follow him further.

Where the reality shows started?
«The attempted rescue was a major media event. It was the first time in Italy that a live outside broadcast had attracted millions of people to follow the events on TV. Initially, images were transmitted live because it was believed that there would be a quick and positive outcome. After some time the situation appeared to be slowly worsening, but this did not interrupt the transmissions. It posed many questions about privacy and the ethics of broadcasting such events which sparked a widespread public debate. The story also made the international news, a BBC Headlines broadcast carrying the story of a rescue attempt as its top headline on 12 June».
You can read this story here.

Typically Canadian...

A grocery store in Kingston Ontario forgot to lock up on a holiday. With doors open and no staff to keep watch, only two items were taken - two cans of cherry tomatoes for which the "customer" left $5 (more than the value of the items).

commented: Must of been out of maple syrup. But I lived in Van,BC for years. It was nice. +0

75% of spice around the world comes from India

Contrary to popular belief, the teaching of evolution in public schools in the US actually declined following the Scopes Monkey Trial as few districts wanted to take on the creationists. John T. Scopes lost at trial and was fined $100.

Little known fact. Indiana Jones was only about four feet tall. Here is the proof...

In the first movie the medallion states the height of the staff used to find the location of the ark. The old man says:

It is here. This were the old way, this mean six kadam high.

Salah replies

About 72 inches.

The old man continues

Wait! And take back one kadam to honor the Hebrew God whose Ark this is.

So one kadam is one foot. Six feet minus one foot is five feet. Now look at this snapshot of Indiana Jones standing next to the staff.

2019-09-17_200610.jpg

He is clearly a foot shoter than the staff. Therefore Indiana Jones is only four feet tall.

9 unbelievable things which are not science fiction anymore
Sunscreen pills – It is still in development, but some tests shows, that the pills are more effective than the traditional sunscreen.
Google’s self driving car – California just allowed the company’s car on every street in the state.
3D printers – This looks like old news, but 3D printers are now able to print not just small things, but there are printers which can build up building without human interaction. Just give the blueprints to the printer and your house is ready within a day!
Wireless electricity – More than 100 year old technology. Tesla wrote about it and built machines which were charged by wireless electricity. The technology was almost not developed for more than half century. Now the technology allows us to charge our phones, laptops or cars without even doing anything.
Private space companies – Companies like SpaceX or Virgin Galactic already sending people to Space. They are not associated with any government, instead for example SpaceX sending NASA astronauts to the International Space Station.
City on Mars – PayPal co-founder and SpaceX founder Elon Musk wants to send people to Mars within 10 years. His plan for the near futures also includes colonies on Mars.
Contact lenses with night vision – University of Michigan researching (read light novel online) a new type of contact lenses which can be used for seeing in the dark.
Exoplanets – Most of the exoplanets (planets not in our solar system) were discovered this year. Every day new and new planets are discovered, and some of them are Earth-like.
Mind controlled machines – A paralyzed woman was able to control a robotic arm with her mind! Mind controlling technology is already available, and in the future it will be wide spread.

commented: That's spam. +0
commented: City on Mars - still science fiction. +0
  1. Instagram was founded in October, 2010.
  2. More than 40 billion photos have been shared in the Instagram history.
  3. Instagram was sold for $1 billion in 2012.
  4. Currently, there is more than 4.2 billion number of Instagram likes per day.
  5. Most followed Instagram user is Selena Gomez, with more than 113 million followers.
  6. Around 95 millions photos is uploaded per a single day.
  7. Instagram has been installed 1 billion times on the Google Play Store alone.
  8. 32% of all Internet users are on Instagram.
  9. 59% of internet users between the ages of 18 and 29 use Instagram
  10. When Instagram introduced videos, 5 million videos were uploaded in the first 24 hours.

The company that makes EpiPen (Mylan) increased the price for two pens from $100 to $600 between 2010 and 2016. Each pen contains only $1 of epinephrine. Generic versions such as Adrenaclick are available for as little as $10 a pen ($110 at CVS with a $100 discount coupon from the manufacturer), however in the US, if a doctor states EpiPen (brand name) on the prescription instead of epinephrine auto-injector (generic name) the pharmacist is not allowed to substitute the generic form. If you need a prescription for an auto-injector, make sure the doctor uses the generic name.

This restriction does not apply in Canada where pharmacists may substitute an equivalant generic product.

Here in France the pharmacist is actively encouraged to dispense a generic when the prescription is for a brand name drug, unless the doctor explicitly states "not substiutable" on the prescription. With effect from this month the state's universal healthcare insurance is limited to the cost of the generic, eve if the patient insists on a branded version (unless the doctor explicitly states "not substiutable" on the prescription).

USA here. While our family has good insurance it doesn't stop gouging such as:
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/12/23/787403509/for-her-head-cold-insurer-coughed-up-25-865

That's 25,865 USD for a throat swab test.

In the last year I've had to walk out on doctor visits due to the wrong answer to questions like:

  1. Are you in my insurance network? Answer must be yes. "I don't know" and "No." mean I thank them for their time and leave.
  2. Asking in advance what the charges will be. If they don't know, I have to leave as well.

This has lead(edited) to some interesting (?) calls later from their survey or "happiness" office.

France? For some reason I thought you were in the US.

No, I'm English, from London. Although my work meant spending a lot of time in the States there's no way I would ever contemplate living there.
I cashed everything in and retired 21 years ago when my youngest child went to univrsity. We bought a decrepit farmhouse in south west France and have lived here very happliy ever since. And yes, the health service is a major part of that, especiallya s we get older.
ps: In answer to the usual follow-up question... Im my opinion brexit is an act of insane deluded national suicide supported by ignorant bigots who were lied to by a tiny number of very rich investors like Boris who will get a lot richer from it.

Surprisingly, there are tons of random facts about books that are super interesting.
And since you obviously love reading and learning things, we decided to round up some of the most interesting facts about books so you can know a little bit more about the thing you love most.

  1. There are over 129 million books in existence.
    According to Google, 129,864,880 million books had been published as of 2010. That number is obviously a lot higher now. So when you say out loud “Ugh, can’t find a good book to read,” know that you have a lot to choose from.

  2. The most expensive book ever purchased was sold for $30.8 million.
    It was Codex Leicester by Leonardo Da Vinci, and it was purchased by Bill Gates, according to Business Insider. Don’t worry though, he probably made the money back within the hour.

  3. There’s a word for loving the smell of old books.
    You guys, you know you love the smell of old books. They have the aroma of dust and a whole lot of history. Well now you can call it something. “Bibliosmia” is the word you’ve probably been searching for your whole life.

  4. The longest sentence ever printed is 823 words.
    We have a feeling it’s probably a run-on, but it’s a legit sentence that exists in Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables, according to Barnes and Noble.

  5. Author’s names didn’t used to be printed on the covers of their books.
    The covers of the first printed books were considered artworks. They were covered in drawings, leather and even gold — so there wasn’t a place for the author’s name. Source

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