by Diana Filer
1. Rumble strips are machine-made grooves in pavement, causing noises and bumps to alert drivers that they are on dangerous parts of roadways.
2. While it is not illegal to die in Longyearbyen, Norway, a small village of about 1,500 population on the island of Spitsbergen, now called Svalbard, there is permanent year-round permafrost, so nothing can be buried there. Terminally ill people are flown to Oslo. The town is the world’s northernmost location that has a population of over 1,000
3. Danish poet and storyteller Hans Christian Andersen is the author of the fairy tale, The Red Shoes.
4. Carbon is humanity’s most important element.
5. Hops, a plant of the hemp family, are used in making beer. A hop is dioecious: having separate male and female plants. Asparagus, mistletoe and spinach are further dioecious examples.
