Items of Note

Random things I learned today...

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-- About 15% of Americans older than 18 don't use the internet. Out of the non-internet users, 49% are older than 65. (x)

-- In 2010 (the year of a World Cup), adidas sold 1.2 million Mexican national team soccer jerseys. The Mexican jersey outsold all the other adidas teams, including the champion Spain. (x)

-- 38% of two-year-olds have used mobile devices, up from 10% two years ago. (x)

-- India has only earned 26 Olympics medals -- all at the summer games. 

Chess is so popular in India that it's covered in the sports pages. (x)

-- The blood-spattered pink suit Jackie Kennedy wore the day of JFK's assassination is in the possession of The National Archives. It's banned from public view. 

So many people came to see JFK's casket at his memorial in the Capitol that there were two lines moving through the rotunda at an average of 35 people per minute. By the time the Capitol was supposed to close at 9 PM, the line had stretched all the way to DC Stadium (now RFK Stadium), two miles away. Visiting hours were extended through the night. (x)

-- Vancouver, British Columbia has amended its building code to phase out door knobs & sink knobs in favor of lever handles/faucets that are easier to open, particularly among the elderly. This applies to all future construction. Vancouver City Hall has already made the change. (x)

-- With Hawaii (15th state) and Illinois (16th) passing same-sex marriage laws, now more than 1 in 3 Americans live where same-sex marriage is legal (x). 

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-- France instituted a law in 1981 that books be sold at the same price everywhere, with discounts limited to 5%. This law was set up to protect independent bookstores from large chains that are more able to offer large discounts. Last month, France's lower house of parliament passed a bill that prohibits Amazon from offering both a 5% discount on its books and free shipping. 

Another way France protects independent bookstores, in Paris the city buys buildings in high-rent districts and offers booksellers the leases at a more affordable price. The city's deputy mayor in charge of independent commerce says that the city tries to keep a core of 300 independent bookstores. (x)

-- In the EU this year, bike sales surpassed new-car sales in every country except Belgium and Luxembourg. This was the first time on record that bikes outsold cars in Spain. In Italy it was the first time since World War II. (x)

-- In Stanford's main undergraduate division, 45% of the faculty members are in the humanities -- but only 15% of the students. (x) 

-- Representative Michael H. Michaud (D-ME) recently announced to the public that he was gay. He is now the seventh member of Congress to be openly gay, lesbian, or bisexual. (x)

-- Denmark was the first country to essentially eliminate trans fat from foods in 2003. Austria, Iceland, and Switzerland followed suit. (x)

-- The average state prison term in the U.S. is 3 years. In the Netherlands, more than 90% of the sentences are 12 months or less. In Germany, it's 80%. (x)

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-- Colorado was the first state to officially observe Christopher Columbus Day, in 1906. The are three states that do not observe the holiday at all: Hawaii, Alaska, and South Dakota (all states with significant native populations). In 1990, South Dakota decided to celebrate "Native American Day" instead. Hawaii celebrates "Discoverers' Day" and their Polynesian community. It's said that Alaska doesn't celebrate Columbus Day because it falls too close to Alaska Day (on October 18). In 1992, the city of Berkeley, California announced that they would celebrate "Indigenous Peoples Day" instead. (x)

-- Iceland, a nation of just over 300,000 people, has more writers, more books published, and more books read per capita than any other country. One in ten Icelanders will publish a book. Crime novels are especially successful -- crime novel sales double that of any of its Nordic neighbors (where crime novels are also quite popular). "This time of year sees the 'jolabokaflod', or Christmas Book Flood, when most books are published. About now every household gets a book catalog through the door. They pore over it like a furniture catalog. Everyone receives books as Christmas presents - hardback and shrink-wrapped." (x)

-- There are technically no laws in Saudi Arabia that ban women from driving; however, authorities do not issue them driver's licenses. There's also a custom that women are required to be accompanied in public by a male family member. (x)

-- For the 2012 election, West Virginia was the only state where voter turnout was lower than 50%. 

Nearly 27% of West Virginia's personal income derives from transfer payments, including retirement, disability, medical, unemployment, and welfare benefits. (Mississippi ranks second with 25%). Almost 1 in 5 West Virginians receive food stamps. In fact, President John F. Kennedy made a campaign promise in West Virginia to use his first executive order to begin the food stamp program. He fulfilled the promise the day after he was inaugurated, and the program's first vouchers went to the family of a laid-off miner from West Virginia. (x)

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-- In the past two years, Peru has overtaken Colombia as the number one source of counterfeit U.S. dollars. "Unlike most other counterfeiters, who rely on sophisticated late-model inkjet printers, the Peruvians generally go a step further -- finishing each bill by hand." (x) 

-- When U.S. government officials receive gifts from foreign leaders -- like Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah giving Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gold jewelry worth half a million dollars or British Prime Minister David Cameron giving President Obama a customized Dunlop table-tennis table -- they have to give them up. Under U.S. law, most gifts have to go to the National Archives or General Services Administration, unless the recipients reimburse the U.S. Treasury for the gifts. (x)

-- Boston has never elected a non-white mayor. Out of the nation's 25 biggest cities, Boston and Indianapolis are the only two in the North that has never elected a mayor of color. Boston is now a minority-majority city -- 53% of the population identifies as something other than non-Hispanic white. Boston's current mayor Thomas Menino (in office since 1993), who is an Italian-American, was the city's first non-Irish mayor elected since 1930. (x)

-- Bangladesh is about the size of Iowa, but it has a population of more than 150 million people -- approximately half the U.S. population. (x)

-- Since 1982, there have been more than 60 mass shootings (defined as four or more people being killed) in the United States. In only one of those instances was the shooter female. (x) 

-- Italy has the highest percentage of vegetarians in the European Union. Germany has the second highest. (x)

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-- According to the executive director of the New York State Board of Law Examiners, there are two people who have taken the test more than sixty times. (x)

-- Greenland is the country with the highest suicide rate. Greenlanders commit suicide three times as often as the next most suicidal countries, Lithuania and South Korea. (x)

-- In Detroit there are 60,000 parcels of vacant land and 70,000 empty buildings. Detroit currently sprawls across 139 square miles, more than Boston and San Francisco combined. The population of Detroit peaked in 1950 at 1.85 million. Since then, as the auto industry declined and nearly all the city's white residents moved to the suburbs, the population has dropped by nearly 60%. The median price of a house in Detroit is less than $10,000. The city now has as many as 50,000 stray dogs that roam the streets and live in abandoned homes. (x) (x)

-- In 1975, Britain's inflation hit 25%. In 1976, Britain became the first developed country to receive an IMF bailout. (x)

-- The French baguette dates back to the 1920s. This product was a result of a new protective labor law that prevented French bakers from working between 10 PM and 4 AM. This rule made it impossible for bakers to have enough time to make traditional loaves of bread by breakfast time. So the bakers started making thin-shaped bread, which was faster to prepare and bake. 

A French research center found that 98% of the French eat bread every day. According to France's National Bread Observatory, the baguette makes up three-quarters of all bread consumption (x) 

-- Only one woman has narrated a big movie trailer: Melissa Disney for Gone in 60 Seconds. She is also the person that does a lot of award show introductions (e.g. "And now, please wel-come, Brad Pitt and An-gelina Jolie!") (x)

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-- There are more bicycles than people in The Netherlands. In cities like Amsterdam and The Hague, up to 70% of all journeys are made by bike. Cycling proficiency lessons is a requirement in Dutch school curriculum. The Dutch rarely wear bike helmets. This is due to the fact that the culture and rules of the road are very bike-centric -- cyclists have the right-of-way; there are many cycle paths segregated from car traffic; paths where bikes and cars share the road, cars are viewed as the guests and drivers respect that. (x) 

-- Urban beekeeping has been growing in London, and the number of hives has doubled over the past five years. There are now about 25 hives for each square mile of the city. However, this can result in too many bees with not enough flowers in London. (x)

-- Detroit is actually north of Windsor, Ontario. (x)

-- The population of Iceland is about half that of North Dakota. (x)

-- Australia has a minimum wage of $16.88/hr. A lot of countries don't have a minimum wage, such as Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, Italy. Instead of a minimum wage, most of these countries have widespread collective bargaining, which sets de facto minimums. (x)

-- President Jimmy Carter installed 32 solar panels on the White House in 1979. When President Reagan took office and moved in, he had them taken down. (x)

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-- Rhode Island's largest county has a larger population than the entire state of Wyoming. (x)

-- As of the writing of this article, there's only two escalators in Wyoming (one that goes up and one that goes down in The First Interstate Bank building in Casper). (x)

-- The US actually has control of South Korean troops. This arrangement, a legacy of the Korean War, means that if fighting broke out on the Korean Peninsula, the U.S. would be in command of both their troops and Korea's. Seven years ago, South Korea requested a transfer of control back to them. However, South Korea has since requested delays. The transfer was originally planned for 2012, then it was delayed to the end of 2015, and now South Korea wants to delay the transfer again. (x)

-- The Smithsonian Institution has 137 million items in its collection. (x)

-- There are 105 countries without a McDonald's, including Ghana, Jamaica, Yemen, and Tajikistan. In six countries, there once was at least a McDonald's but due to economics or politics, the franchises closed (e.g., Iceland, Bolivia, Macedonia). But there is at least one McDonald's franchise in 119 different countries, including Cuba (though it's on the American-controlled Guantanamo Bay...). Vietnam is set to get their first McDonald's next year. (x)

-- Iowa has never elected a female governor, senator, or member of the House. The only other state with the same record is Mississippi. (x)

-- Craven Cottage, the home stadium of the English Premier League club Fulham, has a statue of Michael Jackson out front. The former owner of the club, Shahid Khan, was a friend of Jackson's. (x)

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-- For the first time in France, sales at fast food chains have surpassed those at traditional restaurants. An annual survey of consumer spending found that fast food chains account for 54% of all restaurant sales. Eating at places that serve casual food like burgers, sandwiches, and pizza has increased 14% in the past year alone. (x)

-- Mexico is now the world's most populous, obese nation. Mexico has now surpassed the United States, but barely. In Mexico, 32.8% of adults are obese, compared to 31.8% in the US. Almost 70% of Mexican adults are overweight or obese. Childhood obesity has tripled in the past ten years and one-third of teenagers are obese. (x)

-- From 2010 to 2012, sales of ethnic foods at grocery stores in the United States rose 4.5%, to $8.7 billion. A market research firm estimates that sales will grow 20% between 2012 and 2017. 

This past year Lays potato chips held a "Do Us a Flavor" contest in the US, where customers could suggest chip flavors. The three finalists were Chicken & Waffles, Cheesy Garlic Bread, and Sriracha. Before it was held in the US, this contest was conducted in Britain, India, and South Africa. Flavors there included Caesar Salad, Chili & Chocolate, and Cajun Squirrel. (x)

-- China takes a lot of efforts to censor news on the internet. Government offices send messages to website editors on what stories to allow, not allow, in what placement the stories should appear, whether or not comment boxes should be enabled. They also ask them to downplay (or play-up) certain stories. The government even hires people to post pro-government comments on websites. Chinese prisoners can even earn sentence reductions for writing a set number of pro-government comments. (x) 

-- Gerald Ford is the only American to serve as both president and vice president without ever being elected. Most people know he became president after President Nixon resigned after the Watergate scandal. But he also was selected by Nixon to be vice president after the then-vice president Spiro Agnew had to resign due to a bribery scandal. Gerald Ford was House Minority Leader at the time.

Agnew is the only VP in US history to resign because of criminal charges (VP John C. Calhoun resigned, but he did it to take a seat in the Senate. He was vice president under John Quincy Adams and then Andrew Jackson. The only other vice president to serve under two different presidents was George Clinton, vice president to Jefferson and Madison). (x)

-- Same-sex marriage is now legal in England and Wales. The bill cleared both houses of Britain's Parliament and Queen Elizabeth II provided her stamp of approval. It's unclear whether Scotland or Northern Ireland will have a similar law. England and Wales become the 10th and 11th European countries to legalize same-sex marriage. They join 15 other countries and parts of the United States and Mexico. (x) 

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— Until 2007, the male and female winners at Wimbledon did not receive equal prize money.  The men’s check was a few thousand pounds more than the women’s. While not a huge monetary difference, it was a symbolic difference.

Venus Williams led the fight for the prize money to be equal. She appealed the governing body of the tournament, and when that didn’t work she wrote an op-ed in London’s Times. The issue was even brought up in Parliament. All the attention shamed the All England Club (where Wimbledon is played) into changing the payouts. When Venus Williams won her fourth Wimbledon championship in 2007, she became the first woman to the earn the same amount as her male counterpart (in this case, Roger Federer): $1.4 million. (x)

— Norway encourages equal parenting. As a result, their family leave policy encourages mothers and fathers take time off from work after the birth of their child. Parents share time off which is either 47 weeks off with 100% pay or 57 weeks off with 80% pay. The first six weeks off are reserved just for the mother (for obvious medical reasons). As an incentive to get fathers involved in the child-rearing, out of the total time off, 14 weeks have to be taken exclusively by the father. If he doesn’t claim this, both parents lose this share of the parental benefits. (x)

— Graca Machel, Nelson Mandela’s wife, has been the first lady of two African nations. She was previously married to Samora Machel, who led Mozambique to independence from Portugal in 1975 and became its first president. He then died in a plane crash in 1986. Graca then married Nelson Mandela in 1998, on his 80th birthday, in the final year of his presidency. In addition to being a first lady twice over, she was a freedom fighter, trained in guerrilla tactics, during Mozambique’s war for independence. (x)

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-- According to the 2010 Census, there is only one county in the United States (the county is in Mississippi) that did not record a gay couple living together and identifying themselves as partners. (x)

-- Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) recently became the longest-ever-serving member of Congress. He surpassed the record held by the late senator Robert Byrd (D-WV). Dingell, who is 86, has served in Congress for more than 57 years -- which is 67% of his life. He has served under 11 presidents, from Dwight Eisenhower to Barack Obama. (x)

-- Northampton, Massachusetts has become a bit of a haven for middle-aged alt-rock musicians from the early '90s. Thurston Moore & Kim Gordon from Sonic Youth moved out there in 1999. J Mascis from Dinosaur Jr. lives nearby. His neighbor is Charles Thompson IV, also known as Black Francis from the Pixies. Another resident is Julie Cafritz, from Pussy Galore. She's now a mother of two and teaches English at Holyoke Community College. (x)

(Another tidbit from the above article: Uma Thurman's father, Robert Thurman, is a prominent Tibetan scholar). 

-- Indiana is the only state in which one cannot buy packaged beer, wine, or liquor on Sundays. It's also the only state that regulates alcohol sales based on temperature: Only liquor stores can sell cold beer. (x)

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-- Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), who passed away on Monday at the age of 89, was the last WWII veteran in the Senate. He was also the oldest member of the Senate. Lautenberg was the last surviving member of the 115 WWII vets that served in the Senate. There are two WWII veterans that remain in the House, John Dingell (D-MI) and Ralph Hall (R-TX). (x)

-- Senator Lautenberg was responsible for establishing a national drinking age of 21 in 1984. He did this by giving an incentive to states to either raise the drinking age to 21 or lose 10% of their federal highway funding. Sixteen years later he put another condition on highway spending: that states had to designate the drunk driving limit at 0.08 blood alcohol level. He was also responsible for smoking being banned on all commercial airline flights in 1989. (x)

-- In Finland, expectant mothers are provided a box by the state that includes clothes, bedding, outdoor gear, bathing products, diapers, and other products for the baby. The box, in addition to the small mattress provided, can double as a bed for the baby. The program was first instituted in 1938.  "It's designed to give all children in Finland, no matter what background they're from, an equal start in life." In order to receive the box, expectant mothers have to go to the doctor or a pre-natal clinic by their fourth month of pregnancy -- so the box also serves as an incentive, in addition to a benefit.  Parents have the choice between taking the box or a cash grant currently set at 140 euros. However, 95% opt for the box because it's worth much more. 

The contents of the box reflect the changing nature of the times/parenting. For instance, during the 1930s and 40s the box included fabrics for the mother to make the baby's clothes. However, once more mothers began working outside the home, the box started to include ready-made clothes that are easy-to-wash. The box has also transitioned from cloth diapers to disposable ones, and then back to cloth (on environmental grounds). In 2006, the box no longer included bottles in order to encourage breastfeeding. (x)

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-- There is a competition over the record for the oldest person to climb to the summit of Mount Everest. Japanese climber Yuichiro Miura has climbed Everest three times. The first time was at age 70. The second time was in 2008, at age 75. This is when the rivalry started. That same season, a Nepalese climber that is one year older than Miura, Min Bahadur Sherchan, reached the summit at age 76 and took the record.  A couple weeks ago, Miura reached the summit for his third time, at age 80, and retook the record. However, Sherchan, at age 81, was already in tow and said he was preparing to scale the peak the following week. Unfortunately, Sherchan fell ill and had to turn back and was rescued from the base camp via helicopter. Miura holds on to the record. In addition, Miura also holds the record for the first person to ski down Mt. Everest (from the 8,000 meter-mark); he achieved this in 1970. (x)

-- Buying organs from volunteers is illegal in every country except Iran. (x)

-- The United States is the only developed country that doesn't guarantee paid holidays or vacations for its workers. Many European countries have legal requirements to provide at least 20 days of paid vacation each year. (x)

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-- Takoma Park, Maryland has become the first city in the United States to lower its voting age. A city charter amendment was passed that grants 16- and 17-year-olds the right to vote in local elections. Takoma Park also voted to allow felons that have served their sentence to vote in local elections. (x)

-- Marine Corps uniform regulations state that male Marines are not allowed to use or carry umbrellas while in uniform. However, female Marines can carry or use "an all-black, plain standard, or collapsible umbrella" during bad weather, if they want, but not when in combat uniform. The Army has the same umbrella rules. In the Navy and Air Force, all service members can carry an umbrella when not in field uniform. Neither a Marine spokesman nor an Army spokesman could explain the reasoning behind the gender divide. In the 1990s, there was an attempt to change the umbrella policy, but it failed. Umbrellas are apparently seen by some as 'unmanly.' (x)

-- In the U.S. last year, 88% of all corn was genetically modified, 94% of cotton, and 93% of soybeans. In the E.U., less than 1% of the crops are genetically modified (most of it occurring in Spain). Only two genetically modified crop types are approved for planting in the EU -- a BASF potato (which is no longer marketed) and a Monsanto corn breed. However, despite both US and EU food regulators reporting that the product is safe, the latter is banned for growing in certain individual EU countries, including France and Germany. (x)

-- France has now legalized gay marriage. They are the 9th European country and the 14th globally to do so. (x)

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-- Famous on-air psychologist Dr. Joyce Brothers had appeared as a contestant on the TV game show "The $64,000 Question" in 1955. At this point in her life she already earned a PhD in psychology from Columbia, and was teaching psychology at Hunter College before she decided to leave in order to stay at home with her baby. Her husband was going through his medical residency at the time, and in order to supplement their income Dr. Brothers decided to appear on a quiz show. She thought she would do well because she had a really fantastic memory. 

She decided on "The $64,000 Question", a game show in which the contestants picked a topic and had to answer a string of increasingly difficult questions on that subject until they got to the top prize. Dr. Brothers noticed that the show often liked to pick contestants that had selected a topic that didn't seem to fit them. For example, a Marine officer who was an expert on gastronomy. So she selected boxing as her category, and spent weeks studying up on the subject.

She made it onto the show, and week after week she returned until she finally won the $64,000 top prize. She was only the second person, and the first woman, to win the top prize. She later appeared on a spin-off show called "The $64,000 Challenge", where she again won the top prize with her boxing knowledge.  

In the late-1950s there was a scandal involving quiz shows. It was alleged that contestants on some shows, "The $64,000 Question" included, were fed the correct answers. Dr. Brothers was called before a grand jury, and she was asked boxing questions to see if her knowledge was authentic. She was able to answer the questions correctly and was cleared of any involvement in the scandal. (x)

-- Minnesota is now the country's 12th state to allow same-sex marriage. It is the first Midwest state that passed gay marriage through legislative action (Iowa passed it through the court).

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-- The U.S. has a green card lottery program in which 55,000 applicants are selected at random each year. It's a chance for them to "win" residency with almost no strings attached. The lottery was created in order to diversify the pool of immigrants granted visas. Last year almost 8 million people applied.  

The soccer star Freddy Adu is a beneficiary of the green card lottery. His mother won the lottery in 1997, and the family moved from Ghana to the U.S. when Freddy was 8.  He became the youngest player to appear in a Major League Soccer match, and the youngest scorer in MLS history (at age 14). He has also played for the U.S. national team.  

Unfortunately, the green card lottery program is currently at risk of being terminated by Congress. (x)

-- F. Scott Fitzgerald's full name is Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald. His namesake is Francis Scott Key, the man that wrote the Star Spangled Banner. They were distant cousins. (x)

-- U.S. taxpayers employ more low-wage workers than Wal-Mart and McDonald's combined. Taxpayer dollars fund nearly 2 million private sector jobs that pay $24,000 a year or less ($12/hr or less), compared to the 1.4 million low-wage workers at McDonald's and Wal-Mart. These are jobs where the income comes from government contracts, Medicare and Medicaid spending, and federal infrastructure funds, among others. (x)

-- There are three Native American tribes that have decided to allow same-sex couples to get married. The tribes are the Suquamish Tribe of Washington, the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians in Michigan, and the Coquille Indian Tribe in Oregon (who were the first in the nation to approve a same-sex marriage law). However, there are 566 federally recognized tribes, and most have stayed silent on the issue.

"Scholars note that before their introduction to Christianity, many tribes accepted their gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender members as 'two spirits,' even giving them added respect because they were thought to have special powers." Two-spirit individuals are thought to carry both a feminine and masculine spirit. (x)

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-- The most valuable baseball card in existence is a T206 lithograph of Honus Wagner, shortstop for the Pittsburgh Pirates. In 1909, the American Tobacco Company started shipping a series of 524 cards inside packs of cigarettes. The series is referred to as the T206 lithographs, and the cards had white borders and colorful backgrounds. The Wagner card is rare, but others are rarer, and Wagner isn't the most popular baseball player  -- but his card was sold for the highest price ever paid for a baseball card at public auction. The card sold for $1.6 million in 2008, and it recently sold for $2.1 million. 

Buying high-end baseball cards and other sports memorabilia is becoming most of an investment than a collector's hobby. There's even a Professional Sports Authenticators -- like a Moody's -- that assigns number grades to memorabilia items so that it's easier for investors to tell the value of something. No graded Wagner card has ever sold at a loss.  (x)

-- There are eight poles on earth. "There are four in the north and four in the south: geographic, geomagnetic, magnetic, and last accessible-ic -- that is, farthest from land, in the Arctic, and from the sea, in Antarctica. (The location of the Arctic one is disputed.)"

The first person to go to all eight of the poles is Frederik Paulsen, a pharmaceutical magnate (Ferring). The 62-year-old Swiss man did it this past winter. In 2007, he and five other people went to the bottom of the sea directly under the ice cap at the North Pole using Russian bathyspheres. They went 14,000 feet deep. They were at the point on the planet that is the closest to the center of the earth. The opposite point on the planet, the furthest point from the Earth's center, is the summit of Mt. Chimborazo, Ecuador. It's not because the mountain has the highest elevation above sea level -- there are higher mountains -- but because of its location along the equatorial bulge. Paulsen attempted to climb the summit a couple of years ago, but the weather was too bad. 

Apparently Paulsen also owns the historical archives of Greenland. (x)

-- During the 2012 election, the turnout rate for black voters was higher than the rate among white voters for the first time on record. 66.2% of eligible black people voted compared with 64.1% of eligible non-Hispanic white voters.  In comparison to the 2008 election, there were an estimated two million fewer white voters and 1.8 million more black voters.  

One reason for the increase in black turnout was an increase in votes from black women. Women in general turned out at higher rates than men during the 2012 election. Women voted at a rate 4% higher than men. Among black voters, women voted at a rate 9% higher. (x)

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-- China is a growing market for Hollywood movies. Last year China became the world's second-largest box office market, and the Motion Picture Association of America predicts it could become the biggest by 2020. In an attempt to take advantage of this growing market, U.S. movie producers are trying to appeal to Chinese officials in order to have their movies played there.  Communist Party leaders control the country's movie market, and the government has a 37-member censorship board that reviews the content of movies and selects which ones will be screened in China. They only approve 34 foreign films each year.

In order to win the favor of Chinese officials, producers and studios have been willing to add Chinese actors and locations to their movies. They've also been willing to tweak plot points or details in the movie -- such as inserting footage that flatters China or removing footage that offends China. For instance, Chinese censors were unhappy of a scene in Mission Impossible 3 that showed unsightly laundry hanging from Shanghai homes. Or one line in a James Bond movie that made a passing reference to the Cold War.

Some edits recently made include Red Dawn (2012) changing the invading Chinese soldiers to North Koreans. In World War Z instead of the outbreak that sparks the zombie apocalypse originating in China, it was rewritten to originate in Moscow. In Iron Man 3, the villain's name was changed from "the Mandarin" to "Man Daren", so that it would have no Chinese association. Iron Man 3 also added footage to the Chinese version, including a plug for a branded milk-grain drink from China's Inner Mongolia that is said to revitalize Iron Man's energy. Another added scene has a Chinese doctor and his assistant (played by one of China's most popular actresses) helping Iron Man and explaining that his life is dependent on their unique Chinese medical abilities.

Interestingly, in 2011 Chinese authorities banned time-travel movies. The explanation is that they're "disrespectful of history." (x)

-- The force that guards the pope is called the Vatican's Swiss Guard. It was founded in 1506. The force consists of 100 volunteers who must be Swiss, trained by the Swiss Army, Catholic, single, and at least 5'7". They wear blue-, yellow-, red-, and orange-striped pantaloons with red-plumed helmets. (x)

  -- Delaware is now the country’s 11th state to allow same-sex marriage. (x)

  -- The Polar Music Prize -- a Swedish international music award that has been awarded to the likes of Paul Simon, Bjork, Led Zepplin -- was founded by Stig Anderson, who was the manager of ABBA. (x)