Things I Learned - June 2026

+ special world-cup themed feature

Hello and happy July 4th weekend 🇺🇸! Here are some things I learned last month.

Things I Learned

1. The number of abortions in the US has increased since the repeal of Roe v. Wade. (source)

2. A total of 11 years transpired between the Wright brothers’ first human flight (1903) and the first commercial passenger flight (1914). (source)

3. A cow has just one calf a year. (source)

4. In the last week of June 2026, Paris, France recorded more days with a temperature above 104°F (40°C) than it did in the entire 147 year period 1872-2019. (source)

5. The name “Vanessa” was invented by writer Jonathan Swift as a pseudonym for his lover Esther Vanhomrigh. (source)

6. Elon Musk’s compensation from Tesla in 2025 (i.e., pre-SpaceX) was approximately 16 times the combined compensation of the next 400 highest paid CEOs that year (source).¹

7. When gunpowder was first discovered in China, it was not intended for use as a weapon; it emerged from attempts by Taoist alchemists to create an elixir of immortality. It was only weaponized several hundred years after its discovery. (source)

8. The card game “Magic: The Gathering” was invented by the great-great grandson of James Garfield, the 20th president of the US. (source)

9. In the US, just 3.3% of (heterosexual) couples consist of a woman who is taller than the man.² (source)

10. Xi Jinping’s salary is $22,000 a year. (source)

11. In the NYC subway, some lines are letters and others are numbers. This is because New York's subway was originally built by competing companies that used different track sizes and different naming systems. (source)

12. Profession is not a (federally) protected class in the US. It is generally legal to charge different prices to people based on their profession. [definitely not legal advice!]. (source)

13. A phonestheme is a pattern of sounds systematically paired with a certain meaning in a language. For example, the English phonestheme “gl-” occurs in a large number of words relating to light or vision, like “glitter”, “glisten”, “glow”, “gleam”, “glare”, “glint”, “glimmer”, “gloss”. (source; other examples).

14. Fewer than 4% of DSA members hold blue-collar jobs. (source)

From this Day in Previous Editions:

• (June 2025; #2): The word “forte”, as in one’s strong suit, is supposed to be pronounced like “fort”, not “for-tay”. (source)

• (June 2024; #4): The record of peasant revolts from 1500-1910 is 1 win, 6 draws, 71 losses. (source, h/t)

Special Feature! World-Cup-Themed Things I Learned

Since I’ve spent the better part of the past couple weeks watching the World Cup, here are some soccer related facts I have learned:

1. Only 8 countries have ever won the World Cup. (source)

2. 1968 was the first year that a soccer ball had its iconic black and white hexagonal look. The ball was designed this way because it was made by Adidas. (source).

3. The offsides rule in soccer is defined by reference to the second-to-last defender, where the last defender is often, but not always, the goalkeeper (source, h/t).

4. In the 1938 world cup, Sweden automatically advanced to the second round because their scheduled opponent, Austria, was annexed by Germany. (source)

5. Approximately one in five goals comes from a corner kick. (source)

6. “Soccer” was the more common name than “football” in the UK until about the 1960s.³ (source)

7. 73% of players on Morocco’s 2026 World Cup roster were not born in Morocco. (source)

Miscellaneous Things I Liked in June

• The New York Knicks.

• This collection of Americana-themed postage stamps by Ralph Lauren.⁴

• The contents of this “America250” time capsule, to which every state government / governor was asked to contribute items (the capsule is to be opened in 2276). Some of the more interesting contributions: a Claude AI prediction (California), a whalebone (Maine), a recipe card for the biscochito cookie (New Mexico).

• This letter from my great great uncle to my uncle, written almost exactly 50 years ago on the occasion of America’s 200th birthday:

  

Articles I Enjoyed Reading:

• Joe Wiesenthal’s list of reasons for why crypto is having its coldest winter to date.

• This piece (”The Glitchy, Gloppy Look of Now”) on how the aesthetics of logos that appealed to millennials differ from the ones that appeal to gen z.

• The Law of Averages, about the maritime origin of the concept of “average.”

• The advice about wedding gift giving/receiving at the end of this column.

• The wikipedia article on the last speaker of the cornish language.

• Baolian Wang’s “The $69 Billion Mirage: How an Accounting Rule Inflated S&P 500’s Q1 Earnings by 12%”.

• This article from The Economist on what sorts of things correlate with world cup soccer strength, ft. these two graphs:

  

Personal Updates

Quieter month than last, but some sporadic highlights: a trip to California for a wedding; traveling to Philadelphia to see France play Iraq in the world cup; a ride in an original 1925 Model-T Ford; a visit to the new costume exhibit at the Met; the engagement celebration of close friends; another unsuccessful trivia night at Farm.One; three (somewhat more successful) corporate softball games; a day spent on a farm feeding alpacas, collecting honey, and harvesting eggs from chickens. This month also marked the one-year anniversary of finishing my PhD, which feels like a lifetime ago. Some pictures to mark such things:

Top: scenes from France vs. Iraq World Cup Game; beekeeping with friends. Bottom: the Model-T Ford I rode in; bonding with my niece; becoming a doctor this time last year.

I hope everyone has a great July!!

1. A related tidbit: America’s first millionaire was John Jacob Astor (~early 1800s); its first first billionaire was John D. Rockefeller (1916); and the first trillionaire was Elon Musk (2026).

2. Under random matching, a taller woman would be expected in 7.2% of all couples.

3. I also learned that (i) the word soccer is an abbreviation of association (from assoc.) (ii) in the UK, historically, ‘"Soccer" was a term used by the upper class, whereas the working and middle classes preferred the word "football"’. (source)

4. I enjoyed the stamp collection because (a) I’ve been surprised at the general lack of festivity around the 250th birthday of America (b) I frequently send postcards and am always on the lookout for new stamps (c) I’m amused at the concept of a United States Postage Service x Ralph Lauren collaboration.