Nearly 50% of American adults now use some form of alternative medicine, spending an estimated $27 billion a year on herbal and other supplements and on such treatments as acupuncture, chiropractic, and energy healing.
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Minimum number of murders committed in India since 2000 whose motive was witch hunting: 2,257
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Some 480,000 suspects are currently locked up in American jails awaiting trial. About 75 percent of them are low-level offenders accused of nonviolent infractions, and are in jail simply because they can’t afford to post bail.
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. . . a reptile experience, after a Michigan firefighter who’d handled snakes as a teen ran into a burning home and carefully rescued a 6-foot-long python. None of the other firefighters “wanted anything to do with it.”
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After decimating the Tanzanian elephant population, poachers have now killed half of the elephants in neighboring Mozambique in just five years. A survey by Mozambique’s government and the U.S.-based Wildlife Conservation Society found that the herd has shrunk from 20,000 in 2010 to just over 10,000 animals today. “This decline is due to rampant elephant poaching in the country’s most important […]
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Chance that an American fast-food customer uses posted calorie information to make food buying decisions: 1 in 6
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The oceans, like the rest of the planet, set a temperature record in 2014, at 60.9°F (16°C), or 1.03°F above the 20th century average. Acidity is up as well—a bad combination for sea life.
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One in six roofers suffers an injury each year. The least risky profession: Legal services.
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Percentage of countries worldwide in which girls outperform boys in academic achievement: 70
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A magnetic levitation passenger train set a world speed record of 375 m.p.h. (603 km/h) on a test track in Japan on April 21. Here are top operating speeds, in miles per hour, of some of the world’s other fastest trains: Shanghai Maglev Train, China: 268 TGV, France: 199 AVE, Spain: 193 Sapsan, Russia: 155 Acela Express, U.S.: 150
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