What did you learn this week? This week, we learned …
… all about Quebec’s multimillion-dollar maple syrup cartel.

Photograph by Mark Thiessen, National Geographic
What impact does climate have on the maple syrup cartel?
… Spain is getting rid of streets named after fascist leaders, and dedicating them to women instead.

What are the politics of place-naming?
… the world’s most difficult language, and what factors make it so difficult.

Photograph by Jodi Cobb, National Geographic
… how 20,000 birds simply vanish. Read of the week, and just in time for the Christmas Bird Count!

Photograph by Sudhir Viswarajan, courtesy Wikimedia. CC-BY-SA-3.0
What kind of birds can you identify in your own backyard?
… what it feels like to be a bee, and why the liquid gold of the Sundarbans is the most lucrative of forest products.

Photograph by Anand Varma, National Geographic
Why are the Sundarbans so dangerous?
Bee a pal—build your own bee hotel.
… it’s bad for a mathematician to have a good memory.
Would a mathematician make a trade for a holiday mystery gift? (Yes, and so should you.)
… Mexicans are fighting to save the largest pyramid in the world.

Photograph by Emgalindo, courtesy Wikimedia. CC-BY-SA-3.0
… China is at the forefront of manipulating DNA to create a new class of superhumans.
Should gene editing be performed on human embryos?
… a university degree is worth more in some countries than others.

Chart by OECD
What are the most lucrative U.S. majors?
… Bridgmanite is the most common mineral on (or in) Earth.

Photograph by Rob Lavinsky, iRocks.com, courtesy Wikimedia. CC-BY-SA-3.0
Where can you find Bridgmanite?
I really didn’t have any idea about maple syrup before reading this article about it so thankful to Nat geo..
It was really interesting to get knowledge of different languages.. Well English is really easy, easy to understand easy to write that’s why it’s an international language.. Tuyuka spoken in northern Amazon is the world’s hardest language… But no one has idea about these kind of languages..