1. Walgreens and Walmart are not related. They both just begin with WAL. Charles Walgreen started his first operation in Chicago in 1901 and invented the malted milkshake in 1922. It's the largest drug retailing chain in the USA and operates 8300 stores. Walmart was founded by Sam Walston in 1962 and is now the world's largest retailer in the world. They have 8970 stores. Sam's Club is in the Walmart chain.
2. We are familiar with bird flu and swine flu, but now, camel virus. On Wednesday of this week I showed a bactrian camel, the one with two humps. It is the one hump version, the dromedary camel, that is now implicated in the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS, not to be confused with MRSA, or Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus auras, generally contracted in the hospital) This virus is in the same family as the coronavirus, which sometimes is linked to bats, and is what causes SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome). Don't eat or touch camels from Oman and the Canary Islands, though scientists remain somewhat puzzled. Hmmm...I was planning to stop by Las Palmas on my next trip to research both mega-tsunamis and Project TROPOS.
3. Don't read this if you are eating, but do you know what a fatberg is? An iceberg is what crippled the Titanic. A fatberg can be the size of a bus, and is mostly fat and baby wipes congealed into a 15-ton blob, as recently dislodged from a London sewer. How would you like the job of this guy to the right. Can you imagine the smell? You laugh, but the city is planning to run a power plant on fatbergs.
4. How many baseballs are officially used in the Major League each year? Depends on what source, but the average can be from 40 to 125/game, if you count practice balls. If the latter, then around a million balls. However, a number somewhere in between seems more reasonable, so make that close to half a million baseballs/year. However, I've seen estimates of only around 100,000/season, so, sorry, don't really know. These articles refer to the cost of each Rawlings as $3. Maybe that was a long time ago, for Amazon.com sells it for $6.75. Which leads to my story of buying a can of three tennis balls nearly 65 years ago for $3. These balls still go for $3/can, meaning that when I was in high school I was paying the today equivalent of $24/can. No inflation whatsoever! A golf ball today is also a buck each, but the expensive Titleist Pro V1x (with Pro V1 is used by 65% of pros) cost something closer to $4/ball. Is it worth the extra cost? Well, the spin is better, but this is like drinking expensive wine, I can't tell the difference.
5. Anyone know the top three sites for tourists? In 2012:
5. Anyone know the top three sites for tourists? In 2012:
- France 83 million
- USA 67 million
- China 58 million
I find it hard to believe that only around 8 million tourists visit Japan each year, around the same as Hawaii, and this is only because tourism picked up 34.6% in Japan in 2012. Further, visitors spent $126 billion in the U.S., but only $56 billion in Spain and $54 billion in France. The reason why is mostly Europeans visit these two countries, and they only have short stays.
-
Looks like Typhoon Utor is strengthening, now up to a Category 2 at 105 MPH, but soon to attain Category 3 status and strike the Philippines on Monday:
Looks like Typhoon Utor is strengthening, now up to a Category 2 at 105 MPH, but soon to attain Category 3 status and strike the Philippines on Monday:
The eye will be sufficiently north of Manila such that only some rain will be experienced in that city. Utor will then weaken over land, but again strengthen into a Category 2, with the eye passing between Hainan and Hong Kong on Wednesday.
-
0 comments:
Post a Comment