3 Facts, 3 Numbers, 3 Thoughts 

THE FACTS

* If you were floating around in outer space without a spacesuit, would you boil to death or freeze to death? If you guessed “boil,” you’re right. The lower the atmospheric pressure, the lower the boiling point of fluids, and space has zero pressure. So without a spacesuit, all the liquids in your body (i.e., blood, water, eye gelatin) would quickly come to a boil and you’d die from ebullism (the formation of gas bubbles in your system) or hypoxia (the lack of oxygen to your tissues) in about a minute.

* What is the single most important factor in maintaining health and longevity? Diet? Exercise? Genetics? According to a recent study, the answer is… wealth! An Oxford Academic study of 25,000 people in the US and England on “socioeconomic impacts on health/longevity” found that for both men and women, an individual’s level of wealth was the most important factor in living a long, disability-free life. This finding is consistent with many previous studies. In summary, the researchers stated that “higher wealth gives access to better housing, healthier life styles, as well as better health services.”

Another more plausible explanation: Smart decisions, good habits, and the ability to defer gratification makes you both wealthier and also healthier.

* The WHO has finally agreed with me: Large-scale lockdowns as a way to fight a pandemic like COVID-19 may be useful to keep hospitals from being overrun, but they have serious consequences. In a recent release, they admitted that lockdowns can have “a profound negative impact on individuals, communities, and societies by bringing social and economic life to a near stop.”

 THE NUMBERS

* 395%  –  the increase in Bitcoin’s value in the past year, according to data from MarketWatch. In January, BTC’s value was $8,000. It steadily increased through 2020 to its current value of just below $40,000.

* 0.7% – the chance of contracting COVID-19 from someone in your home if they are asymptomatic, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. This is 25 times less than the already small chance of contracting it from a household member that does have symptoms (18%).

* 16 – the number of official languages in Zimbabwe (a Guinness World Record). They include Chewa, Chibarwe, English, Kalanga, Koisan, Nambya, Ndau, Ndebele, Shangani, Shona, sign language, Sotho, Tonga, Tswana, Venda, and Xhosa.

 THE THOUGHTS 

* “If you can walk away from a landing, it’s a good landing. If you use the airplane the next day, it’s an outstanding landing.” – Chuck Yeager

* “It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.” – Henry Ford

* “The most relentless force in the universe is entropy. And that is why, to achieve anything in life, one must continually create order.” – Michael Masterson