Californian Fruit, Magnetic Boots And More

Californian Fruit

In California, if you buy fresh fruit in the state, there is no tax to pay. However, if you buy the same fresh fruit from a vending machine in the state, you have to pay a 33% tax on it.

Magnetic Boots

In the movie Face Off, they use magnetic boots during one scene. These magnetic boots may look familiar to anyone that loves Mario because they are the same ones used in the Super Mario Bros movie.

Malaria Vaccines

At the end of 2021, there was only one single vaccine against Malaria. It was just 30% effective and a dose of the vaccine would lose all effectiveness after 3 years.

Hashtags

The hashtag symbol # is actually called an Octothorpe. Nobody knows exactly where it got the name from but one of the strongest suggestions is that the hashtag looks similar to a sheep pen used in farming villages in the UK. Octo (or eight) refers to the 8 lines coming away from the middle square, and Thorpe translates to Village.

4 Day Week

The 4-day working week is becoming more popular as time goes by.
In 2016, 13 in 10,000 jobs offered it.
By 2019, the number rose to 40 in 10,000 jobs
By 2021 it had risen to 60 in 10,000 jobs.

Ghost Kitchen

A Ghost Kitchen is a food delivery business that makes food in another business's kitchen so it can avoid paying business taxes.
Some kitchens can operate two or three different takeaways from one commercial kitchen.

Singapore

Singapore imports 90% of their food from other countries. When COVID-19 struck and food transport was dealt a blow, it caused a serious concern that people living in Singapore may end up running out of food if it couldn't be delivered from abroad.

Manga

In 2020 and because of lockdowns worldwide, sales of Manga suddenly shot up by 43%.

James Webb Telescope

In its first year of operation, the James Webb telescope had 40 different countries book time to use it.

Oysters

A large Oyster can filter 50 gallons of seawater every day. To give that context, the average family bathtub is around 45 - 50 gallons.