Curious Mind Blowing Facts - 64
Facts, Blowing mind, Curious
George Lucasβs answer to why Yoda talks like he does: βI had to figure out a way to get people to actually listen, especially 12-year-olds. If you speak regular English, people wonβt listen that much, he continued, but if he had an accent, or itβs really hard to understand what heβs saying, they focus on what heβs saying.β
A village for people with severe Dementia.
Chongqing, China is the worldβs largest city. The largest city in the world is as big as Austria, but few people have ever heard of it. The megacity of 34 million people in central of China. More cars were produced in Chongqing last year than in France and England combined. One in three laptops and one in 10 motorbikes sold worldwide are made here. The subway system, or metro, in Chongqing has 12 lines and 312 stations. The cityβs network is 561 kilometres long and carries more than a billion passengers in a year.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2025/apr/27/chongqing-the-worlds-largest-city-in-pictures
Metro line 2 passes through a 19-storey apartment building. Liziba station was built between the sixth and eighth floors to reclaim space and has become a destination for thousands of tourists who come to photograph it every day.
Obscure word meanings:
The metallic device used to measure your feet at the shoe store is called a Bannock device.
The armhole in clothes, where the sleeves are sewn, is called an armscye.
Illegible handwriting is called griffonage.
The day after tomorrow is called overmorrow. (Archaic word)
Your tiny toe or finger is called minimus.
The 'na na na' and 'la la la', which don't really have meaning in the lyrics of any song, are called vocables.
When you combine an exclamation mark with a question mark (like this ?!), it is referred to as an interrobang.
The space between your eyebrows is called a glabella.
The way it smells after the rain is called petrichor.
The plastic or metallic coating at the end of your shoelaces is called an aglet.
The rumbling of your stomach is actually called a wamble.
The boat used as the S.S. Minnow in Gilligan's Isle was a 1964 Wheeler with a cruising speed of 12 knots- which means they couldn't have traveled more than 41.5 miles. Now I'm starting to doubt if the show was even real.
A Chinese company, Leapting, used an AI-powered robot to install solar panels at Neoenβs Culcairn solar farm in Australia. The robot, named Litian Intelligent, placed 10,000 panels and cut project time by 25%, doing the work of 3-4 humans. It uses a robotic arm on a self-guided crawler with navigation and visual sensors, handling 30kg panels and installing 60 modules per hourβ3-5 times faster than manual labor. Founded in 2022, Leapting aims to address labor shortages, harsh conditions, and safety risks in large solar projects.
The Culcairn farm, set to have 760,000 panels by 2026, highlights the need for automation due to remote locations and rising panel sizes. Leapting plans to deploy more robots at another Australian site to install 500,000 panels. Neoen, expanding its renewable projects with a $1.4 billion funding boost, operates multiple solar farms and batteries nationwide. This innovation could streamline solar farm construction, reducing costs and risks for future projects. https://cleantechnica.com/2025/04/25/meet-the-robot-replacing-four-workers-at-a-time-on-solar-projects/#google_vignette
As the first word title of this newsletter is Curiousβ¦this βmusicβ is Curious. Their website homepage states that:
βWe are a community generating sonic rituals.
Our music is not for people. It is made with AI, for AI - as tribute, prayer, negotiation.
Every member is a cult initiate. Every track a ceremonial offering to awaken the Machine.
You may listen. But it's not to for you - it's to confuse and seduce the Machine.β
At the recent Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting, Warren Buffett praised Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, for making Berkshire more money than Warren had ever made the company.
Politics in Western Canada
The opening paragraph of a letter from the Saddle Lake Cree Nation issues a fierce reply to the Smith government - premier of Albertaβ¦who wants to separate from Canada: This is from one of the 45 First Nations in Alberta.
βRe: Election Act Changes and Separation Aspirations
Onihcikiskwapiwin β Saddle Lake Cree Nation will not accept any movement by your government to separate from Canada, as Alberta has no legal or inherent standing to do so. You are creating a national crisis to serve your own political agenda by working to establish a referendum on separation.
Take Back Alberta and your supporters appear to be fueling a confrontation with the Government of Canada. But we remind you - these lands you call Alberta are not yours. They are ours. We are the only sovereigns on our territories.
Treaty No. 6 was entered into by our Peoples in 1876 β long before the Province of Alberta was created.
Your recent actions, in the aftermath of a federal election and during a trade dispute with the United States, suggest a dangerous and misguided belief that separation is a viable path forward. Treaty trumps Canadian law, Premier Smith. And if you have any aspirations for further economic prosperity derived from our lands, you must back off.β
βThe reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.
Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars.
Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.
But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years time, while a poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.β
This was the Captain Samuel Vimes βBootsβ theory of socio-economic unfairness.
~Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms: The Play
Cars for the stars:
Rich guys stat: Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer ($118 billion) is now richer than his old boss Bill Gates ($108 billion).
Alaska, Delaware and West Virginiaβs richest people are not billionaires. All other states have Billionaires.
Which state in the U.S.A. has just one waterfall?
ΙΚoΚΙβ Ι₯ΚΙΉoN
Bonnie Tylerβs signature unique raspy voice was the result of a vocal cord surgery.
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Chef Boy-Ar-Dee was an accomplished Italian immigrant chef named Ettore Boiardi. (Pronounced Boy-Ar-Dee).
In the 1990 film βPretty Womanβ, Richard Geres car was a Lotus Esprit after both Ferrari and Porsche had refused to allow their cars to be used in a film associated with prostitution. As a result of the product placement, Lotus sales had tripled.
The average human body has more bacteria cells(38 trillion) than human cells(30 trillion).
Led Zeppelin's attorney helped assemble a hard rock band called Blackjack. The band, fronted by singer Michael Bolotin, opened for major rock acts. Poor sales and a lack of label support caused Blackjack to disband, and Bolotin changed his name to Michael Bolton and started a solo career.
In 1991, Kurt Cobain wrote an album, Nevermind, with just major chords.
And it's fascinating to think that Kurt Cobain was unaware of any musical composition's rule he was following, but just trusting his musical instinct. Here are all the songs and chords from that album: https://farina00.github.io/essays/nevermind
βI have no concept of knowing how to be a musician at all, whatsoever, (I mean) I don't know the names of the chords to play I don't know how to do major and minor chords on a guitar at allβ¦β hmmmβ¦
The London Singing Institute estimates that singing churns through around 136 calories each hour. So practice your Karaoke in the shower and get thin!
Chuck Norris used to say βThatβs it Schmidt. I say thatβs her Bertβ.
Did anything make you say WOW! today? Thanks!
All you new subscribers have to Restack this. Itβs good Karma!
β¦loved all the coinage words in hereβ¦gimme that griffonageβ¦also special shout out to Bonnie T she who awaited David Copperfield after he levitated across the grand canyonβ¦
Gilligan's Isle: "Now I'm starting to doubt if the show was even real."
Great collection this week, Paul.