Facts & Trends
Good week for . . .
Smarty pants, after Google developers announced that they were teaming up with Levi’s to make jeans with conductive fibers that could be used as touch screens, allowing users to answer the phone or send a text just by swiping their ...
Air Pollution in India
According to the U.N., India has 13 of the world’s 20 most polluted cities. Low vehicle-emission standards, booming industrialization, crowded cities and the burning of trash means that the vast majority of Indians breathe unsafe air ...
Building a wall
To keep out foreign extremists and refugees seeking work, Saudi Arabia is now building a 600-mile wall along its border with Iraq, and is strengthening fortifications along its 1,060- mile border with Yemen ...
Unruly Passengers
Reported incidents of unruly passenger behavior on airplanes soared from 339 in 2007 to 8,217 in 2013 ...
The Real Beliefs of Islam
"We can't end terrorism any more than we can end crime in general. But I look forward to the day when an act of terrorism by self proclaimed Muslims will be universally dismissed as nothing more than a criminal attack ...
Shooting His Computer
A Colorado man was given a ticket by police this week for shooting his balky computer eight times and "killing" it. Police say Lucas Hinch, 37, had become "fed up with fighting his computer for the last several months," so ...
Anger at Pope’s Mention of Armenian Genocide
Turkish leaders reacted with outrage this week after Pope Francis referred to the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War I as “the first genocide of the 20th century.” Turkey recalled its Vatican envoy, and President Recep ...
The Most Popular Names
The five most popular names for baby girls in 2014 were (in order) Emma, Olivia, Sophia, Isabella, and Ava, according to the U.S. Social Security Administration. For boys, the most popular were Noah, Liam, Mason, Jacob, and William ...
Separated at birth
Bao Lulin was always being mistaken for someone else. People would approach her at the restaurant where she worked in Guizho, China, asking why she didn't recognize them. This October she discovered why: Lulin had an identical twin sister from whom ...
