Something I learned: The Wampanoag are native Americans of North America made up of several tribes. There are currently ca. 2000 Wampanoag.
Something that made me happy: Reading a good book of fiction. It’s nice to catch a break from the real world, sometimes.
(Facts from Wikipedia)
Something I learned: There is a language called Massachusett which used to be spoken by several peoples of eastern coastal and south-eastern Massachusetts and currently, in its revived form, in four communities of Wampanoag people.
Something that made me happy: Being able to speak a language which not everybody understands. It’s a ton of fun when going to i.e. USA.
(Facts from Wikipedia)
Something I learned: The first woman credited with having finished a marathon did so in 1918. The first woman officially doing so in USA didn’t happen until 1959.
Women weren’t allowed in the acclaimed Boston Marathon until 1972 (although they participated unsanctioned since 1966).
Something that made me happy: How far equality has come since then. I find it crazy how close that kind of inane behavior is to present times.
Something I learned: 70% of those incarcerated in California have been charged with a money-related crime. That is robberies, burglaries, fraud, larceny, extortion and so forth.
Something that made me happy: So many ways to learn. The options on the internet alone are impressive.
(Facts from Curtis Carrol’s talk on TEDxSanQuentin from January 2016)
Something I learned: San Quention State Prison opened in 1852 and is the oldest prison in California.
Something that made me happy: It’s pretty cool that they arranged TED talks in San Quention. Share the knowledge!
(Facts from Wikipedia)
Something I learned: USA is by far the biggest export market for Scotch whisky. Number 2, 3, 4, and 5 are France, Singapore, Taiwan, and Spain.
Something that made me happy: Pizza, wine and movie nights with friends.
(Fact from Bloomberg)
Something I learned: A G.I. is a US soldier and/or general items of their equipment. It is often thought of as “Government Issue” or “General Issue”, but it originally referred to galvanized iron, as used by the logistics services of the United States Armed Forces. The letters G.I. were used to denote equipment made from galvanized iron,
Something that made me happy: Getting to do some fun things in the lab.
(Facts from Wikipedia)
Something I learned: Phil Knight started Nike as Blue Ribbon Sports in late 1962 by going to Japan and making a deal with Onitsuka Co. to represent their sports shoe brad Tiger in USA.
Something that made me happy: Some of Kate McKinnon’s sketches on SNL are hilarious. For instance her portrayal of Ruth Bader Ginsberg is hilarious.
(Facts from Phil Knight‘s book/memoir Shoe Dog)
Something I learned: Until 2008 that more Americans thought pre-marital sex was wrong than not.
Something that made me happy: That despite things moving forward slower and (much) later than what is desirable, they are moving forward. On some points, at least…
(Facts from GSS through Overflow Data)
Something I learned: Planet Money made a stock trading bot that trades based on Donald Trump’s tweets. Shorts a company when he tweets negatively about it, buys a company when there’s a positive tweet about it.
Something that made me happy: They named it BOTUS.
(Facts from Planet Money episode 763: BOTUS)
Keep thinking 