I kept more organized notes this year about what I learned. It had been an aspiration in years past, but I’d inevitably lose track of it as the year went on. This time I kept a simpler flow and just appended notes to a running text file. There are 6 things that stood out as I read back through it this weekend.
From Paul Kingsnorth’s Against the Machine I learned that 84 percent of Britain now lives in cities. While I knew the world is increasingly urban that’s just a staggering figure.
Coddiwomple means to travel with purpose to an undetermined location. I love this idea! I seemingly failed to note down where I picked it up from, though.
Over all of World War II only 139 cars were made in the United States. That’s how heavily manufacturing shifted to the war effort as in the year before the war over 3 million cars were produced.
Part of Wexford once had three separate timezones. After winter/summer time was introduced in 1916 it took rural areas decades to make the change. Large parts of Ireland had Old/New time as towns and cities updated while rural areas ignored it. This held true up into the 1950s!
Walt Disney based aspects of the Disney castle on Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany. What’s funny is that this castle is largely a facade as it’s framed in steel and only partially finished inside. A castle that presents an imagined reality feels pretty on the nose for Disney.
From a BBC documentary on Asia I learned mangrove forests trap 4 times the carbon of forests on land and the Indonesian Throughflow carries more than 10 times the water of all the world’s rivers combined (there’s some wild camera work that demonstrates how strong this current can run).
