Interesting notes from the Dec issue of United’s Hemispheres inflight magazine (appeared early on Nov 30):
- Samoa is going to move the date line from its western border (moved there in 1892 to facilitate trade with the US) to its eastern border (to facilitate trade with Asia) on Dec 29, essentially skipping an entire day!
Side note: last year they adopted daylight saving time, which is odd in a tropical location
Side note: in 2009 they switched from right-handed to left-handed drive roads. - There’s a private collector’s museum in Anniston, Alabama that includes items like Hitler’s tea set, a diamond-encrusted scimitar from Persia (owned by Catherine the Great), family photos from Benito Mussolini and the bust of Alexander the Great that Napoleon carried around with him
- Re LeBron James: “Given all of LeBron’s flaws – ego, hubris, a receding hairline… his talents… would abandon him in some of the most important moments of his basketball life offered glorious schadenfreude.” (sorry, that’s just a great German word)
- Describing a kangaroo: “Take a T.rex, shrink it to about 6 feet, cover it in fur and give it a deer’s head…”
- China’s Hainan island is aiming to be the “Hawaii of the East.”
- In the capital city of Hainan is the 2nd largest golf resort in the world (Mission Hills Haikou) with TWELVE golf course (and 150 hot spring mineral baths inspired by different countries’ bathing rituals). Say what?