A baker's dozen of insightful facts discovered this year by Magnetic - a design and innovation company based in England.
In the UK and Australia, people tend to turn left when entering a building. In the US, they turn right. It’s important to remember if you’re booking a trade show booth. Marc Abrahams: The Rightness of Americans
Fees from music playing on Peloton are “a top 10 account for pretty much all major record labels right now.” Hypebot
A deep learning model trained on 85,000 eyes can tell male from female eyeballs with 87% accuracy but no one knows why. Nature
37 percent of the world’s population, 2.9 billion people, have never used the Internet. ITU
Data centres will consume 29% of Ireland’s electricity by 2028. Irish Examiner
In 1739, there were three times more coffee shops per person in London than there are today. Drinkingcup.net and FEJ
Consumer goods branding existed in the ancient city of Uruk, Mesopotamia over 5,000 years ago. ‘Temple-factories’ mass-produced, packaged and labelled goods like bread, beer, wine and woollen clothes. Economic Times
It was once fashionable in Paris to send one’s linens to be bleached in the sun of Saint-Domingue (Haiti). In 1782, after a fleet of 100 ships arrived from the colonies… “Paris was full of men and women who wore the handsome linen bleached in Saint-Domingue. This linen drew everyone’s eyes.” Dame Magazine
A Chinese woman created over 200 fictional articles about Russian history on Chinese Wikipedia, writing millions of words of completely imagined history. It took ten years for anyone to notice. Sixthtone
The best paid lifeguard in LA received just over $500,000 in 2021. OTB.com
Applicants are 1.5% more likely to be granted asylum by a US judge the day after their city’s NFL team won. SFIPress
This list of entertaining facts was compiled by Tim Whitwell at Magnetic and was published as part of a much longer list on Magnetic's website.
Today's Articles
Reason to be Cheerful: A new report shows that analysts are getting much more bullish about renewable energy as massive growth is projected.
Library Blueprint: Remarkable new library concept that provides a blueprint for fostering human convergence. Half the city visit it every month.
Organic vs Traditional: Organic farming shown to be significantly more profitable than traditional intensive agriculture. And many other benefits.
Most Searched in 2022: Google has announced what the world was most interested in this year, divided into 17 different categories.
Self-Sustaining: When a new high-rise building is completed next year it will be fully self-sustaining. Shouldn't all such buildings be like this?
More Good News Articles: A handful of last week's most popular stories (and most watched video), just in case you would like to catch up.