Mercury, the closest planet to the sun, has blistering 800-degree temperatures at its equator—but its poles are full of ice. New data from NASA’s Messenger spacecraft, which began orbiting Mercury last year, has revealed that as much as a trillion tons of ice exists in shadowy polar craters, where temperatures can drop to minus 370 degrees. Much of the ice […]
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An anonymous “Secret Santa” traveled to New Jersey and New York last week to hand out $100 bills to people who’d lost their homes and possessions in Hurricane Sandy. The Kansas City, Mo., businessman spent a day in Elizabeth, N.J., and Staten Island, N.Y., giving C-notes to the poor and homeless; he plans to give away $100,000 this holiday season. He was […]
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Percentage of U.S. stock owned by the wealthiest 10 percent of Americans: 89
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Bad drivers in Shenzhen, China, who blast oncoming motorists with high beam headlights will now face in-kind punishment from police. Police officials in the Chinese city said drivers who abuse the use of high beams will be stopped by police, ticketed for roughly $50, pulled from their car, and forced to stare into police cruiser headlights for five minutes. According […]
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A quarter-century has passed since the meltdown at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant unleashed a radioactive cloud across the northern hemisphere. A new study estimates that 27,000 people have died worldwide as a result of the worst nuclear accident in history, in large part from cancers stemming from the release.
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A dedicated graffiti zone was set up at the Great Wall of China, in the hope it would stop visitors from scratching their names on the historic barrier. Most of the graffiti on the wall, said the Chinese media, is in English.
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Price of an Occupy Wall Street poster being sold by Walmart: $52.25
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The European Space Agency’s incoming director general, Jan Worner, wants to build a village on the moon. Other nations have similarly out-of-this-world ambitions: Japan Launched a probe to mine an asteroid in 2018 China Plans to build a huge solar-power station in space Russia Hopes to send probes to Jupiter, Mars and Venus India Is exploring sending a rocket to […]
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The top 20 percent of taxpayers—those earning $134,300 or more—account for about 84 percent of all federal income tax revenue. When you include all federal taxes, including those on Social Security and Medicare, the top quintile’s share drops to 67 percent. The top 20 percent earn about 51 percent of total U.S. income.
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A Pew survey found that one in five Americans is not affiliated with any religion. “Nones” are growing faster than any religious group in America.
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