The European Space Agency’s incoming director general, Jan Worner, wants to build a village on the moon. Other nations have similarly out-of-this-world ambitions: Japan Launched a probe to mine an asteroid in 2018 China Plans to build a huge solar-power station in space Russia Hopes to send probes to Jupiter, Mars and Venus India Is exploring sending a rocket to […]
Read more
Percentage of Americans aged 18 to 31 with credit-card and student-loan debt, respectively, in 1989: 43, 18 Today: 36, 40
Read more
About 25 percent of the world’s population, or 1.6 billion people, do not have electricity in their homes.
Read more
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. […]
Read more
. . . 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.”
Read more
The top 20 percent of taxpayers—those earning $134,300 or more—account for about 84 percent of all federal income tax revenue. When you include all federal taxes, including those on Social Security and Medicare, the top quintile’s share drops to 67 percent. The top 20 percent earn about 51 percent of total U.S. income.
Read more
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 more
FIGHT BACK! But forget that old saw about punching them in the nose. The International Shark Attack File recommends that you borrow a page from a pro-wrestling villain and gouge its eyes or claw at its gills, which are more sensitive than its nose. Or you could just befriend some dolphins. On at least two occasions in 2004 and 2007, […]
Read more
The Pew Research Center asked people in 40 countries if it was necessary to believe in God to be moral. Here is a sample of those who said it was: 95% – Egypt 86% – Brazil 53% – U.S. 14% – China
Read more
Toxic air pollution in the Indian capital of Delhi has given some 2.2 million children irreversible lung damage, according to a 2010 study from the Kolkata-based Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute that surfaced this month. The report has raised fresh concerns in a country where carbon emissions are forecast to increase for decades.
Read more