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What I Learned Today

Here are a few things I learned today:

1. Kaiser Permanente no longer uses triclosan, an antibacterial agent found in many soaps, because it is believed to have encouraged the development of resistant bacteria

2. The Industrial Revolution changed the way we trust one another. Before the shift from an economy that depended on individual artisans who often worked near home to one of large businesses, men knew their neighbors and could more easily trust one another. Not so after this shift. There came need for legal--rather than social--protections to prevent buyers and sellers from defrauding one another. Banking and insurance came into being, and regulations dictating how those institutions could operate provided the security once held through social accountability.

3. In the late 1600s, Jamaica's coastal Port Royal experienced an earthquake so severe that a section of the city sank into the sea. At least 2,000 people died via drowning or as buildings collapsed on them, and another 2,000 died thereafter from disease and injury. The sand on unpaved roads was said to have undulated in waves, and a section of the land that connected the city to the island collapsed into the sea so that Port Royal now became its own island. Before this event, the city was known as a popular venue for pirates, who both sold the goods they had gained through raids on Spanish towns and ships and who there squandered their wealth lavishly in taverns and elsewhere. After this earthquake, however, Port Royal became the site of many pirate executions.

4. Major League Baseball's all-star game and the home run derby take place just one day apart. This may be trivial, but I did not know this!

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