Debt
Percentage of Americans aged 18 to 31 with credit-card and student-loan debt, respectively, in 1989: 43, 18 Today: 36, 40
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Secret Santa
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 […]
Read moreBad week for:
Self-awareness, after Donald Trump attacked conservative pundits George Will, Jonah Goldberg, and Stephen Hayes for mocking his Republican presidential candidacy, calling them “boring” and “dumb as a rock” and their publications “dying.” Said Trump: “The weakness of conservatives is that they destroy each other.”
Read moreFertility Drugs, Devices and Success Rate
Estimated amount spent globally on fertility drugs and devices this year: $4,054,984,000 Percentage of first-time fertility treatments that fail: 75
Read moreMore is not always better
A New York City woman set off 21 bug bombs inside her apartment, causing an explosion that collapsed her five-story building, injuring 14 people.
Read moreTravel Time
68.4 – The number of minutes Americans spend traveling each day, per capita, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The number is down from 74.4 minutes in 2003.
Read moreDept. of Homeland Security and Low Morale
The Department of Homeland Security has spent $2 million over the past three years on four studies analyzing why its workers suffer from such chronically low morale. It has yet to publish or act on the findings of any of those reports.
Read moreVoter’s Despair
The reason for the voters’ despair is plain, said Ron Fournier in NationalJoumal.com. The American dream of upward mobility seems dead, and neither party seems to have any plan to revive it. “For many, the Republican Party is becoming too extreme, while the Democratic Party—specifically, President Obama—raised and dashed their hopes for true reform.” In polls, a majority of Americans […]
Read moreJoining Jihadist Groups
Young Muslims are still flocking to radical jihadist groups in record numbers. A United Nations study found that at least 25,000 people from more than 100 nations have left home to join the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and other radical groups. The number of foreign terrorist fighters worldwide increased by 71 percent from mid-2014 to March 2015.
Read moreA Knife In The Head
A Chinese pedestrian narrowly escaped death after a knife fell from the sky and stuck in his head. XiaoYunzhi, 57, was walking below a high-rise apartment when the wind blew a kitchen knife from an eighth story balcony. The blade became embedded on the side of his scalp, standing straight up. Xiao realized what had happened only when a storekeeper […]
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