Defying your parents
12-year-old Jaxxyn Wood of Kentucky stayed up to 3 a.m. playing computer games and smelled an electrical fire in the kitchen. He woke his family and got all nine people to evacuate, thus saving their lives.
Read moreCategory: Facts & Trends
Trying anything to find water
A growing numbers of drought-afflicted California farmers began hiring dowsers to locate underground water. “Scientists don’t believe in it,” said vintner Marc Mondavi, “but I do and most of the farmers in the [Napa] Valley do.”
Read moreBritish Businessmen and Their Teddy Bears
Percentage of British businessmen who travel with their teddy bears: 25 Percentage of British men who say they share “all their secrets” with their teddy bears: 15
Read moreThe two deadliest drugs in America are both legal
The two deadliest drugs in America are both legal. Tobacco kills more than 500,000 Americans a year. Alcohol is linked to 88,000 deaths a year (including those caused by drunk driving and violent behavior) and more than 4.6 million emergency room visits.
Read moreHackers In China
A cybersecurity firm has traced scores of attacks on U.S. corporate and government computers to a single building in Shanghai. The security firm, Mandiant, found that the attacks originated in a 12-story building known as the headquarters of People’s Liberation Army Unit 61398. Intelligence analysts say that the unit has about 2,000 employees and 1,000 servers, and is the most […]
Read moreAdvertising Revenue
From 2000 to 2013, advertising revenue for America’s newspapers fell $40 billion—from $63.5 billion to $23 billion, according to a new report by the Brookings Foundation. At the same time, Google’s ad revenue has soared to $57.9 billion.
Read moreSorry, Wrong Number
Florida Gov. Rick Scott, thought he was announcing the phone number of a meningitis hotline, but provided the number of a phone sex line. Callers heard a woman say, “Hello, boys….”
Read moreDANGEROUS COMBOS
There were 2.5 million emergency-room visits related to drug use in 2011—half for illegal drugs and half for misused medication. A third of patients had taken two or more substances: multiple drugs or drugs and alcohol.
Read moreSkiing in shorts
Parts of the Northeast received up to 18 inches of snow over Memorial Day weekend. Snow blanketed parts of Vermont, New Hampshire, and upstate New York.
Read moreMarijuana Usage
College graduates account for only about 17 percent of marijuana use. About 76 percent is consumed by adults who never attended college or dropped out. “Most of the marijuana market is more Walmart than Whole Foods,” says Carnegie Mellon University professor Jonathan Caulkins, author of a new analysis of weed use.
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