MILITARY DEMOGRAPHICS
16.0% Percentage of total military forces who are female 71.9% Percentage of military forces who are Caucasian 2.2% Percentage of military forces who identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual
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India’s Dangerous Smog Problem
Toxic air pollution in the Indian capital of Delhi has given some 2.2 million children irreversible lung damage, according to a 2010 study from the Kolkata-based Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute that surfaced this month. The report has raised fresh concerns in a country where carbon emissions are forecast to increase for decades.
Read moreMissing Airplanes
Total number of passenger planes that have gone missing without a trace since 2000: 10
Read morethings we were told to avoid
Facebook can make you unhappy. Researchers texted study participants five times a day with questions about their social-networking activity and how they felt, and found that Facebook visits directly correlated with negative emotions, such as depression and loneliness. While Facebook seems to fulfill “the basic human need for social connection,” says University of Michigan social psychologist Ethan Kross, it can […]
Read moreWeight of Turkeys
Percentage increase since 1960 in the average weight of a farm-raised U.S. turkey: 72
Read moreIt was a good week for . . .
. . . breathing deeply, after a Chinese travel company shipped bags of fresh mountain air to the smog-choked city of Zhengzhou as a treat for residents. “I felt my baby move right when I breathed in,” said a pregnant woman who waited on line for a sniff.
Read moreObese Americans
American men are weighing in at an average of 196 pounds—16 pounds more than in 1990, a new Gallup survey has found.The average weight for women jumped 14 pounds—to 156 pounds— over the same period. Gallup estimates 62 percent of Americans are either overweight or obese.
Read moreWhen going ‘green’ makes people sick
When communities like San Francisco and Seattle began banning plastic bags, said Ramesh Ponnuru, it seemed like a public-spirited thing to do. But’ benign-seeming laws often have unintended consequences— and the plastic-bag ban is now producing a sickening result. The reusable shopping bags that people now use to bring groceries home turn out to be breeding grounds for bacteria carried […]
Read moreMost Indebted Graduating Class In History
The graduating class of 2015 is the most indebted in history, owing a total of $56 billion in student loans. About 71 percent of college students graduating this year took out loans, at an average of $35,051 each. In 1996, just 58 percent of students took out loans, owing less than $20,000 each at graduation.
Read moreOut Of Breath
Delhi’s air now contains twice as much toxic matter as that of notoriously smoggy Beijing. The health impact has been disastrous, with children in Delhi now three times as likely as others in India to develop severe lung disorders.
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