3 Facts, 3 Numbers, 3 Thoughts 

THE FACTS 

* To look up at stars in the night sky is to look back in time. Space is incredibly vast and stars are very far away – which means that it takes a long time for their light to reach us. It’s very likely that many of the stars you’re looking at burned out millions of years ago. If you were to look at Earth from the nearest planetary system (Alpha Centauri), which sits just over 4 light years away, you would be watching the last election and mourning the death of the Starman himself, David Bowie.

* The oil drained from a car during the average oil change – a little over a gallon – is enough to pollute a million gallons of drinking water.

* If dogs used iPhones, they’d unlock them with their noses. Every dog has a unique nose print, just as every person has unique fingerprints. The Canadian Kennel Club has kept a dog nose print database since 1938. And Megvii, a Chinese technology company, recently developed a digital dog nose print identification system that could help find lost dogs (and finally put an end to all those unsolved canine-led bank robberies).

THE NUMBERS 

* 51 million – the number of dollars that Netflix offered to buy Blockbuster in 2000. In 2010, Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy. In 2020, Netflix was worth $196 billion.

* 55 million – the number of dollars that lesser-known Apple co-founder Ronald Wayne’s share would be worth today if he hadn’t sold his 10% stake in the company for $800 two weeks after its founding in 1976.

*183 million – the record-setting number of albums by the Beatles that have been sold in the US alone. Runners-up are Garth Brooks with 156 million, followed closely by Elvis Presley with 146.5 million. Before being signed by EMI in 1962, the Beatles had been turned down by at least 4 recording companies, including Decca. “Guitar groups are on the way out, Mr. Epstein,” the Decca exec famously told the Beatles’ manager.

THE THOUGHTS 

* “When you have a hole in your soul, you will let others fill it with whatever extra baggage they want to get rid of.” – Michael Masterson

* “If you live for having it all, what you have is never enough.” – Vicki Robin

* “What consumerism really is, at its worst, is getting people to buy things that don’t actually improve their lives.” – Jeff Bezos