Something Fishy Going On
A Chinese fishmonger found a 3-pound live bomb inside a squid he was cutting up. Police took the squid away and blew it up in a controlled explosion.
Read moreCategory: Facts & Trends
IS CLIMATE CHANGE LARGELY THE RESULT OF HUMAN ACTIVITY?
The pollster Ipsos MORI put the question to people in 20 countries. Here’s a sampling of how many said yes:
Read morePrisoners Exonerated
Number of U.S. prisoners exonerated last year: 125 Percentage of those exonerations in which no crime had occurred: 44
Read morePhones vs. Toilets
Of the world’s 7 billion people, 6 billion have access to mobile phones, but only 4.5 billion have access to a working toilet.
Read moreAmount of Police Charged With A Crime In Fatal Shootings
There have been thousands of fatal shootings by police since 2005, yet only 54 officers were ever charged with a crime, according to an analysis of official records. Of those charged, just 11 were convicted or plead guilty.
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 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 moreBy the numbers
141: The number of seasonal former IRS employees rehired by the agency between 2010 and 2013 despite having botched or failed to file their own tax returns, according to a February report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. 8.8 Million: The number of tons of plastic waste dumped into the oceans every year, according to a study in the journal […]
Read moreDrinking in Modern America
Americans drink far less today than our predecessors did. In 1830, the average American drank the equivalent of 7.1 gallons of pure alcohol per year. In 2013, by comparison, the average American drank the equivalent of 2.34 gallons of pure alcohol.
Read moreMilitary Bases
The Department of Defense has 562,000 military bases and facilities located around the world, which collectively cover 24.7 million acres—nearly the size of Virginia. Much of that space is now unused, but Congress has barred the Pentagon from conducting a detailed assessment out of fear that bases in home districts would be closed.
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