52 Things I learned in 2024 • Michael Kitzman personal site

52 Things I learned this year

A conservative estimate holds that there are 240 billion pennies lying around the United States — about 724 [$7.24) for every man, woman and child there residing. These are but a fraction of the several hundreds of billions of pennies issued since 1793, most of which have suffered a mysterious fate sometimes described in government records, with a hint of supernaturality generally undesirable in bookkeeping, as “disappearance.” As far as anyone knows, the American cent is the most produced coin in the history of civilization, its portrait of Lincoln the most reproduced piece of art on Earth. Although pennies are almost never used for their ostensible purpose [to make purchases), right now one out of every two circulating coins minted in the United States has a face value of 1 cent. A majority of the ones that have not yet disappeared are, according to a 2022 report, “sitting in consumers’ coin jars in their homes.” NY Times
Costco sells about 200 million hot dogs a year, more than all of the Major League Baseball stadiums combined. NY Times
Rolex ads and catalogues always show the dates of watches set to 28. Just as the 10:10 position has long been considered the aesthetic ideal for hand position on the dial, Rolex has deemed 28 the most beautiful numerals to magnify under a cyclops lens.Luxury goods are status symbols, and anything can be a status symbol as long as it [1) has cachet, i.e. associations with high status groups [2) high signaling coststo prevent easy acquisition, and [3) an alibi for acquisition other than status signaling. culture.ghost.io
Dolphin and puffer fish to get high. www.smithsonianmag.com
All the Founding fathers were under 45. Threee were in there 20s and James Monroe was 18. Snopes.com
When Medieval armies wanted to battle they would set a meeting time. tiktok.com
The line “Annie are you ok” was inspired by Resusci Anne, the name of the model of doll used to teach CPR. Jackson combined the question trainees learn to ask, “are you OK?” with the name of the doll to create the iconic line. americansongwriter.com
Broccoli is in fact a human invention. It is not known exactly how many years ago broccoli was created, but it is believed that early varieties of this plant were cultivated in the Mediterranean region during the Roman Empire in the 6th century BCE. blogs.cornell.edu
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir in Central Park is actually divided into two quora.com
The first death attributable to an automobile in the United States took place on Sept. 13, 1899, in New York City, at Central Park West and West 74th Street. nytimes.com
Almost 300 nights a year, a lightning storm rages in a small part of Venezuela. Known as Relámpago del Catatumbo, the storm is located where the Catatumbo River flows into Lake Maracaibo. Warm air from the Caribbean meets the cold air from the mountains, creating the perfect conditions for lightning. atlasobscura.com
Hector is a cumulonimbus thundercloud cluster that forms regularly nearly every afternoon on the Tiwi Islands in the Northern Territory of Australia, from approximately September to March each year. en.wikipedia.org
New York City has so many pigeons because they were brought to the area by European settlers in the 1600s, and because the city’s environment is well-suited to them. Pigeons are naturally adapted to high places, and the city’s canyons and tall buildings provide them with the cliffs they prefer. pigeonask.com
Fictitious persons disclaimer seen before movies is because of Russian mystic Rasputin.The disclaimer came as a result of litigation against the 1932 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer [MGM) film Rasputin and the Empress, which depicted the character Princess Natasha being seduced by Russian mystic Rasputin. Natasha was claimed to represent Princess Irina Alexandrovna of Russia, who sued MGM for libel. en.wikipedia.org
There is a room in NYC whose entire floor is dirt. en.wikipedia.org
The US Food and Drug Administration only began requiring drug manufacturers to put an expiration date on medications in 1979. However, they didn’t tell companies how to come up with those dates. Most companies didn’t opt to do the expensive work of methodically testing each drug during development to determine the exact age at which it began degrading. Instead, most simply chose dates a few years out, tested the drug’s potency at that time, and if it was still as good as new, called that the expiration date. vox.com
Unlike most mammals, cetaceans — which include whales, dolphins and porpoises — must consciously choose to breathe. NY Times
Miami International Airport is the port of entry for about 90 percent of the nation’s imported cut flowers. NY Times
Americans discard roughly 36 million tons of plastic each year, which is more than any other country. But the plastic recycling rate has languished below 10 percent for decades. NY Times
A study from Goldman Sachs estimates that, by 2028, up to 70 million Americans will have tried Ozempic or similar drugs for weight loss. NY Times
In the United States, more than 60 percent of the work force lives paycheck to paycheck. The average American is in five- to six-figure debt and often has only cursory knowledge of how they got there. NY Times
George Washington’s dentures were made from, among other things, hippo tusks. NY Times
Recipes can’t be trademarked, but some can be ruled trade secrets, like the formula for Dr Pepper or KFC’s 11 herbs and spices. NY Times
According to a 2023 Ipsos survey, cornhole is the most-played sport in America, ahead of bowling, swimming and golf. [NY Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/21/magazine/pro-cornhole-espn.html]
China is the world’s largest food importer and needs to feed almost one-sixth of the world’s population with less than one-tenth of the world’s arable land, which has shrunk and degraded with heavy fertilizer use and pollution. NY Times
As a rule of thumb, a $10 rise in the cost of a barrel of oil translates to a 24-cent rise in the cost of a gallon of gasoline. NY Times
How long do crows hold a grudge? Based on his experiment, John Marzluff, a professor at the University of Washington in Seattle, estimates the birds remember those who have done them wrong for about 17 years. NY Times
At 5,525 miles, the border separating the United States and Canada is the longest between any two countries. NY Times
About 800 million people across the world lack access to electricity, down from over 1.5 billion in 1998. NY Times
In 1945, Grand Rapids, Mich., became the first city in the world to begin intentionally fluoridating its water. A decade later, the rate of tooth decay among the city’s children had dropped by over 60 percent. NY Times
There are just 16 trademarked scents in the US, including Crayola crayons, Playdoh, an ocean-scented soft play in Indiana and a type of gun cleaner that smells of ammonium and kerosene. scholarship.richmond.edu
Film studios now add CGI effects to behind the scenes footage to hide how much CGI has been used to make the film. youtube.com
The London Underground has a distinct form of mosquito, Culex pipiens f. Molestus, genetically different from above-ground mosquitos, and present since at least the 1940s. nature.com
Medellin in Colombia has cut urban temperatures by 2°C in three years by planting trees. reasonstobecheerful.world
Before buying a web domain name check if it is haunted or cursed. bryanbraun.com
Your bathroom tiles might have neanderthal body parts embedded in them. johnhawks.net
Between 1926 and 1934, the average life-span of a light bulb fell from 1,800 hours to 1,200 hours, because a global cartel of lightbulb manufacturers fined anyone who made a longer-lasting bulb. spectrum.ieee.org
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta hired a team of professional pickpockets to steal phones and wallets from his players at a dinner, to teach the squad the importance of being ready, alert and prepared at all times. NY Times
In the 2020s, over 16% of movies have colons in the title [Like Spider-Man: Homecoming), up almost 300% since the 1990s. statsignificant.com
South Korea has 1,012 robots per 10,000 employees, the highest in the world. This year China overtook Germany and Japan. With 470 robots per 10k employees, China’s robot density has doubled in four years. engineering.com
Every culture has a word for black and white. If a culture has a third word for a color, it is always red. If it has a fourth word, it is either yellow or green. wikipedia.org
Indian Americans own about half of all the motels in the United States. Even more remarkable, most of these motel owners come from the same region in India and―although they are not all related― 70% of them share the surname of Patel. amazon.com
It takes twice as long to cook a chicken today compared to 100 years ago because twenty-first century chickens get less exercise. amazon.com
American baby names trends shifted from family names a century ago to popular names a generation ago to popular endings today. A generation of people named Jason has given way to babies with -son endings: Mason, Jackson, Grayson, and Carson. Today, 48% of the top 500 baby names share only ten endings. washingtonpost.com
Heavy metal guitarists who play fast tend to have higher rates of intrasexual competitiveness, too. The main motivating factor behind becoming a heavy metal guitarist is not to impress women, but to impress other men. psypost.org
Men are more likely to order two hamburgers at McDonald’s when they order with a screen. When they order from a human, they tend to order only one. www.tiktok.com
The first human object launched into space wasn’t Sputnik 1. It was actually a manhole cover accidently blown off test shaft during a nuclear test in Nevada 38 days earlier. It reached speeds equal to six times Earth’s escape velocity and was never found. wikipedia.org
The energy required to show a new Instagram post from Cristiano Ronaldo to each of his followers could power a house for several years. theatlantic.com
A group of butterflies flew across the Atlantic Ocean without stopping. It took them only about eight days. theatlantic.com
To make Shift⌘-V to paste and match the current style the default action open System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Keyboard Shortcuts, and select Application Shortcuts from the list on the left. Then, hit + to make a new shortcut, select Notes.app from the dropdown list, enter Paste and Match Style exactly in the Menu Title box, then hit ⌘V with your cursor in the Keyboard Shortcut box. stackexchange.com
Brains have a consistency not unlike tapioca pudding. theatlantic.com
California grizzly bears were once mostly vegan, but over time, humans made them more carnivorous. theatlantic.com
Sigmund Freud said he put his patients on the couch because he could not deal “with being stared at by other people for eight hours a day.” theatlantic.com

Additional Sourdces

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/31/insider/-ifacts-2024.html

https://medium.com/@tomwhitwell/52-things-i-learned-in-2024-75efffe44f15

https://kenthendricks.com/52-things-i-learned-in-2024/

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2024/12/facts-blew-our-minds-2024/681175/?

2024/12/facts-blew-our-minds-2024/681175/?gift=j9r7avb6p-KY8zdjhsiSZyQFT9b2acphX8EZsZ0-m7U