One Year of Learning 2024

Inspired by Tom Whitwell's 52 things I learned in 2022, I started my own list of things I learned in 2023. Reaching the end of another year, it is time for Things I Learned In 2024:

Some jurisdictions use "day fines"—or fining an offender based on that person's daily personal income. The number of days would be scaled to the seriousness of the offense. Day Fine, Wikipedia
There are over twice as many federally-recognized Indian tribes as there are countries in the United Nations. The 574 Federally Recognized Indian Tribes in the United States, Congressional Research Service
Crayons were invented in Sandusky, Ohio, in 1902 by a school teacher and his brother experimenting with adding waxes to chalk. How one Ohio town once claimed the title of ‘color capital of the world’, The Ohio Newsroom
“Schrödinger’s cat”—the thought experiment in which a cat in a box can be considered both alive and dead—was first published in scientific journal in 1935. It didn't enter the popular imagination until Ursula K Le Guin, a science fiction author, published a short story in 1974. Ursula Le Guin: the pioneering author we should thank for popularizing Schrödinger’s cat, Quantum Magazine.
The U.S. Air Force has a facility in New York where it mounts its aircraft upside-down to test radio emissions. The Fascinating Story Of The USAF’s “Upside-Down Air Force”, The War Zone
The largest energy consumer in California is a pumping station that raises water 2,000 feet (600 meters) to cross the Tehachapi Mountains at the southern end of the state. At full capacity, the station moves 2 million gallons a minute for agriculture and drinking. How Infrastructure Works: Inside the Systems That Shape Our World, by Deb Chachra.
Interlibrary loan was first conceived by Alexandre Vattemare, a french ventriloquist who inspired the founding of Boston Public Library. Alexandre Vattemare on Wikipedia via Camwyn on Mastodon and Mike Taylor.
In 1959, a cement mixer's bucket was left behind on an Oklahoma rural road. In 2011, an artist couple turned it into a space capsule. The Cement Mixer Space Capsule of Winganon, Amusing Planet
Atomic clocks built for use on Earth will run faster on the Moon, necessitating the need for "Lunar Coordinate Time" to support navigation and scientific research on the moon. What Time Is It on the Moon?, National Institute of Standards and Technology
A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving premiered in Canada on Oct 6, 1973 — six weeks before it premiered in the United States. Nat Gerler on Bluesky
The first virtual meeting was in 1916 between members of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers — 5,000 attendees in eight cities (and 95 years before Zoom was founded). The First Virtual Meeting Was in 1916: The amazing feat linked up 5,100 engineers from Atlanta to San Francisco, IEEE Spectrum, 13-Nov-2024
The cumulative land area of China, the United States, India, Mexico, Peru, and Europe still isn't enough to match the African continent. Somalia, Japan, and New Zealand are all approximately the same size as the US East Coast. See this and more shown with maps!
Debit card and can card transactions were nearly identical in dollar amounts ($4.55 trillion versus $4.88 trillion) in 2021, but there were twice as many debit transactions as credit transactions (106 billion versus 51 billion). Credit Card Swipe Fees and Routing Restrictions, Congressional Research Service, 8-Oct-2024

Tom Whitwell has his own list of 52 things he learned in 2024...a good list — I learned some more things!