According to Axios, the U.S. is the most expensive country in the world to give birth – average sticker price for childbirth in the U.S. is $32,093.

According to The New Yorker, compo – short for composition ornament – is a 19th century precursor of plastic, consisting of sawdust, hide glue, and whiting. It can be compounded and worked into molds, and used for ornamentation. The columns holding up the nine tiers of Bob Hope’s 75th birthday cake were made from compo.

A bezoar, a stonelike mass found in the gastrointestinal and other sys­tems of certain animals, was once used as an antidote for various ailments.

Nearly half of all cell phone calls will be scams by 2019, according to First Orion, an Arkansas company that provides caller ID and call blocking technology. Spam accounted for 3.7% of all calls in 2017, then leaped to over 29% in 2018, and are projected to be 45% by early 2019.

Dairy Distillery in Ontario, Canada, makes a vodkalike beverage from a dairy waste product called milk permeate.

This article appears in October 19 • 2018.

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