20 random things I learned during my walk this evening

mostly from podcasts about other parts of the world

I just go back from a 2.5 hour walk from my apartment, across the Brooklyn bridge, lost in China town, and then back again across the Manhattan bridge. I don’t particularly feel much like original thought, but I learned some things—mostly from listening to episodes of the BBC QI staff’s daily-through-the-world-cup “International Factball” podcast series—and I thought I’d share some with you. I heard and saw many more things than 20, but these are what stuck with me through this writing:

1. This American Life host Ira Glass and noted modern composer Phillip Glass are first cousins, once removed
2. Most of the street signs in NYC Chinatown have both English names in roman letters and also names in hanzi. I have been in Chinatown before but I hadn’t noticed this before. I wonder what the process was to get the city to provide for / allow that and when.
3. There is a town in Nigeria where the birth rate of twins is nearly 1 in 6 (as opposed to the global average of 1 in 250) (http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/people/highlights/010607_twins.shtml )
4. The surface area of Russia and the former planet Pluto are roughly equal
5. Australia has a lake named Lake Disappointment
6. The first earthling to orbit the moon was a Russian tortoise
7. It is illegal to name your baby any of a certain list of 60+ names in the Mexican state of Sonora. They include, amongst others: Burger King, Harry Potter, Terminator, Hitler, Facebook, James Bond, and Usnavy (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/12/mexico-sonora-parents-prevented-law-naming-children)
8. There is a place on the Spanish-Portuguese border where you can cross international boundary on zipline (http://metro.co.uk/2014/06/23/portugal-here-i-come-zip-line-whizzes-passengers-from-spain-to-portugal-in-seconds-4773231/)
9. Tempura-fried cuisine, though often thought of as Japanese in origin, was introduced to Japan by Portuguese Jesuit missionaries
10. Last specific to Portugal: The 2008 American romantic comedy film “Forgetting Sarah Marshal” was released in Portugal under the title “Um Belo Par… de Patins”, or in english “A Nice Pair … of Rollerskates”
11. Speaking of names, the official title of the national anthem of Bosnia-Herzegovina is simply “Državna himna Bosne i Hercegovine” … or in English “National Anthem of Bosnia and Herzegovina”
12. The Australian national anthem was composed on a bus returning from a concert series of other nations’ national anthems
13. In 2007 when the Belgian PM-elect was asked to sing his national anthem, he began to sing that of France instead (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1558359/Belgian-politicians-national-anthem-gaffe.html)
14. More recently than that, Belgium went through a period of 541 days without a sitting government. This period was called by some the “Fries Revolution” (as in french fried potatoes)
15. The first published reference to potato chips is commonly regarded to be a passage from Dicken’s A Tale of Two Cities (“Husky chips of potatoes, fried with some reluctant drops of oil”.)
16. Before he became a lawyer, Abraham Lincoln was a licensed bartender.
17. Abraham Lincoln is also purportedly in the US (collegiate) Wrestling Hall of Fame
18. Some cave paintings in Algeria dated to 7000 to 9000 years old are thought (by some, probably biased) to depict people taking psilocybin mushrooms.
19. There is a billboard to the left (as you face Brooklyn) of the Manhattan bridge that simply says “Piece of” and then a picture of a slice of cake. There is no clear product (other than the concept of cake) being advertised. (this probably explains it)
20. As of April 17 2013, the borders of former East and West Berlin remain(ed) apparent from the international space station: