Tag Archives: history

Things I Learned this Week

Among the things I learned this week:
* DVR users’ commercial skip rates, which vary primarily by time of show (e.g., primetime, daytime). (Courtesy: Thomas Rogers on Bloomberg Radio)

* About 98 percent of Bitcoin transactions occur off the blockchain (Courtesy: a16z Podcast)

* Tap music developed out of American slavery, an outgrowth from Irish and West African dancing. Ella Fitzgerald’s Apollo debut was going to be a tap dance, but she decided to sing at the last minute out of nerves. (Courtesy: Harper’s review of What the Eye Hears: A History of Tap Dancing)

* Smarties are vegan. (Courtesy: NYT)

Things I Learned this Week

Among the things I learned this week:
* Alexandria, VA, has the longest running farmers’ market in the country. (Courtesy: Southern Living)

* The personal- and tactical-level experience of Stalin’s Soviet Union. (Courtesy: Orlando Figes’ The Whisperers)

* Clothes dryer’s thermal fuse (Courtesy: Personal experience)

* Fifty-six British gin distilleries opened during the past two years. (Courtesy: Economist)