Americans spend $100 billion annually on cocaine, heroin, pot and meth. Many users spend small amounts at a time—$10 may buy a day’s supply of heroin, for instance. But over time users may build a tolerance to a drug and need more of it to feel high.
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. . . ordering a margarita, after heavy rains, tree disease, and cartel violence sent prices for Mexico’s limes soaring from to $14 a case to $100. “We don’t buy them [anymore],” said the owner of a San Antonio Mexican restaurant. “We substitute lemons.”
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Percentage of U.S. stock owned by the wealthiest 10 percent of Americans: 89
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Shiite death squads have killed more than a dozen young Iraqis over the past month for wearing Western-style emo clothes. The Interior Ministry singled out the emo subculture—made up of youths who listen to Western emo music and wear tight jeans and long hair— last month, branding it “devil worshiping” and calling on the “moral police” to stamp it out. […]
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A British woman has become the first person to ski across Antarctica without the help of kites, machines, or dogs. Felicity Aston, 34, completed the 1,084-mile journey in 59 days, battling through the frozen wastes in temperatures as low as -22 and dragging 187 pounds of supplies behind her on a sled. She overcame crushing loneliness by listening to Agatha Christie […]
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An Australian man hid naked inside a top-loading washing machine to surprise his girlfriend, and had to be freed by police, who used olive oil as a lubricant.
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Percentage of marijuana-related tweets that support use of the drug: 77
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Portion of Americans who say they would ride in driverless cars if the technology were available: 1/2 Who say they would get memory chips installed in their brains: 1/4
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47%: Share of U.S. jobs that are at high risk of becoming automated in the next 20 years, according to Oxford University research.
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A growing numbers of drought-afflicted California farmers began hiring dowsers to locate underground water. “Scientists don’t believe in it,” said vintner Marc Mondavi, “but I do and most of the farmers in the [Napa] Valley do.”
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