11 Things We Didn't Know Last Week

News, discoveries and ... fun

1. An art project regrew Vincent van Gogh's ear. (Learn more at The Verge)

2. Learning a second language can help make you smarter. (Learn more at AARP)

3. New 3-D printed foods look good, taste good and melt in your mouth. (Learn more at Engadget)

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4. Latabe the elephant took the world's very first "elfie," a.k.a. an elephant selfie. (Learn more at Huffington Post)

5. Elmers are, by name, America's oldest men ; Gertrudes take the ladies' crown. (Learn more at fivethirtyeight.com)

6. A motorized suitcase travels at 12 mph and covers up to 37 miles. (Learn more at BBC)

7. Alaska and New Hampshire are the two tax-friendliest states for retirees. (Learn more at AARP)

8. Why do koalas hug trees? To stay cool. (Learn more at Yahoo)

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9. Highly cynical people are three times more likely to develop dementia than those who are more trusting. (Learn more at  AARP)

10. Twitter is full of "grumpy, horrible, moldy, old meaningless crap," says actress Helen Mirren. (Learn more at AARP)

11. Our Milky Way galaxy is on a collision course with the Andromeda galaxy. (Learn more at NASA)

Bonus video: The World Cup is coming, and it has a catchy little song:

Learn something this week? Mail your ideas to 11things@aarp.org, and we'll try to include your story next time.

On Twitter, we're using the hashtag  #11things.

Let us read 11 Things to you:

[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/152848984" params="color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_artwork=true&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%" height="166" iframe="true" /]

Images - Ear: Diemut Strebe, Sugababe 2014 (ongoing project) © Diemut Strebe; Food: photo by Katharina Jaeger courtesy of Biozoon.de;  Elephant selfie: Ross Parry Agency linked via Mashable; Early Elmer Fudd: Wikimedia; Koala: Valerie/Flickr; Bluebird: Pixabay; Space illustration: NASA

Music: We Are One, Ole Ola, World Cup Song, RCA Records, Sony Entertainment;  Alex Beroza: Spinning via ccMixter 

Also of Interest

• Macauley Culkin's Pizza Tribute Band and Other Things We Didn't Know Last Week
• Want to Drop Pounds Fast? Try These Tactics
• Fight fraud and ID theft with the AARP Fraud Watch Network.
• Join AARP: Savings, resources and news for your well-being

 

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