Facts & Trends

Water, Water Everywhere

Estimated minimum gallons of water used annually to produce Coca Cola products: 8,000,000,000,000 Portion of the world’s population that amount would supply with drinking water each year: 1/4 ...

Bungling British Burglar

A bungling British burglar who volunteered to be fitted with a police GPS tracker was arrested after he carried out a string of burglaries while wearing the device.  Nicholas Broadley, 33, wore the tracker as part of a program to help ...

The two deadliest drugs in America are both legal

The two deadliest drugs in America are both legal.  Tobacco kills more than 500,000 Americans a year.  Alcohol is linked to 88,000 deaths a year (including those caused by drunk driving and violent behavior) and more than 4.6 million emergency ...

Lake Mead Level Lower Than Ever

Lake Mead, the main reservoir on the Colorado River, is now just 38 percent full — lower than at any time since it was filled in the 1930's.  If the lake sinks lower still during summer months, officials may cut ...

Pirates

Portion of the Indian Ocean that is underexplored by scientists because of pirates: 1/4 ...

Driverless Cars and Memory Chips

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 ...

Melanoma

The rate of U.S. diagnoses for melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, has doubled in the past 30 years, from 11.2 cases per 100,000 people in 1982 to 22.7 cases per 100,000 in 2011, according to a Centers for ...

A bad year for bees

Colony collapse disorder, the mysterious scourge that has been killing off honeybees since 2005, has suddenly become a lot more deadly. This past winter, as many as half of all hives succumbed to the disorder—up from one third annually in ...

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 ...

7 GOOD REASONS TO BEFRIEND A SHARK

If nightmares about Jaws are keeping you from taking a dip in the ocean, relax. You're much less appetizing than you think. 11: U.S. fatalities from sharks, 1990-2006 16: U.S. fatalities from collapsing sand holes, 1990-2006 1 in 310,733: Odds of dying in a fireworks accident 1 in 3,750,000: Odds of dying in a shark ...