Since it's Friday 13th today, here are 13 facts that may surprise you.
The Telugu-language action film Devara: Part 1 made more money ($5.5m) in US cinemas than Francis Ford Coppola’s $120m Megalopolis in its first week ($5m). Hollywood Reporter
After security at Milwaukee airport there is a ‘Recombobulation Area’ for people who have been discombobulated by the security experience. OnMilwaukee
Ozempic is a modified, synthetic version of a protein discovered in the venomous saliva of the Gila monster, a large, sluggish lizard native to the United States. (AstralCodex10). Furthermore, Ozempic seems to be changing the second hand clothes market, creating a surge in plus-size women’s apparel sales. Size 3XL listings have doubled over the last two years. Vogue
Medellin in Colombia has cut urban temperatures by 2°C in three years by planting trees. RTBC
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
In 1800, 1 in 3 people on earth were Chinese. Today, it’s less than 1 in 5. Our World in Data
In Europe, the number of people who had strokes caused by air pollution fell 25% between 2010 and 2019. Financial Times
Mikel Arteta, manager of Arsenal football team, 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 2024, around 10 percent of Anguilla’s GDP will come from fees for its .ai domain name. ArsTechnica
On 30 September 2024, the UK became the first major economy to completely stop generating power by burning coal. Carbon Brief
In the 2020s, over 16 percent of movies have colons in the title - such as Spider-Man: Homecoming - which is almost three times more than the 1990s. Stat Significant
People whose surnames start with U, V, W, X, Y or Z tend to get grades 0.6% lower than people with A-to-E surnames. Modern learning management systems sort papers alphabetically before they’re marked, so those at the bottom are always seen last, by tired, grumpy markers. A few teachers flip the default setting and mark Z to A, and their results are reversed. Hechinger Report