RACE AND WAGES
75%: The percentage of wages earned by full-time black and Latino retail workers relative to their white counterparts, according to a June 2 report from the NAACP and the liberal think tank Demos.
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It’s Not Easy Being Green
City officials in Chengdu, China, have been painting the city’s grass green to make residents think spring is here.The ruse came to light when some residents noticed unpainted patches of yellowish winter grass, and others found the green paint coming off on their shoes. The city was then forced to admit its deception, but an official said the goal was simply […]
Read moreHaving No Religion
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.
Read moresubways “teeming with life”
Researchers who swabbed and tested DNA from surfaces in New York City’s subway system identified 562 species of bacteria, including microbes from mozzarella, sausage, hummus, kimchi, sauerkraut, rats, mice, and lice. Geneticist Christopher E. Mason said the bacteria found were not sufficient to cause disease, but that his work revealed the subways to be “teeming with life,” like “a rain […]
Read moreThe Less You Have, The More You Give
In 2011, the poorest 20 percent of Americans gave 3.2 percent of their income to charity. The wealthiest 20 percent were far stingier, donating just 1.3 percent. Researchers say those with less to share may have “higher empathy” because they’re more exposed to need.
Read moreTo Delay Aging, Spend More Time Standing Up
To delay aging, spend more time standing up. That’s the surprising conclusion of a new study by Swedish scientists, reports The Daily Telegraph (U.K.). Researchers at Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm took blood samples from a group of sedentary, overweight men and women, all 68 years old, and measured the length of their telomeres—caps on the ends of DNA that […]
Read moreVoyager 1 Escaping Our Solar System
On the 35th anniversary of its launch, the Voyager 1 spacecraft is close to becoming the first man-made object to escape our solar system. The spacecraft—run by a 1977 computer 100,000 times less powerful than an iPod Nano—is currently 11.3 billion miles away. In 2004, Voyager 1 entered the turbulent boundary zone beyond Pluto, where solar winds encounter plasma pushing […]
Read moreFBI Files
The FBI has files on roughly 77.7 million people in the U.S.—the equivalent of one in three American adults. As many as 12,000 new names are added to its master criminal database every day, largely as the result of minor arrests connected to “zero-tolerance” policies at schools.
Read moreGirls Outperform Boys
Percentage of countries worldwide in which girls outperform boys in academic achievement: 70
Read moreIndia’s Air Quality Index
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched India’s first air-quality index in April, but pollution will keep growing unless India stems coal production, which Modi has pledged to double by 2020.
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