Facts & Trends

Bird calls, after firefighters in Idaho rushed into a burning building when they heard voices calling “Help! Fire!” only to discover a pair of “talking” parrots.  “There was nobody besides the birds inside,” said one fireman. “Smart birds.” ...

Appetite for meat is growing as the developing world becomes more prosperous. But meat—especially beef-can be polarizing, on health, environmental, and ethical grounds. Chicken outpaced beef in the U.S. in 2010. Total U.S. meat consumption peaked in the mid-2000's and ...

People who say they are unaffiliated with any religion constitute nearly 20 percent of the American public, making them almost as numerous as Catholics, who accounted for 22 percent of participants in a new Pew Research Center study released Oct ...

A Pennsylvania girl's Sweet 16 party was ruined after her celebration was showered with poop, apparently dumped from a passing airplane.  Jacinda Cambray and 40 guests were partying in her family's backyard when the brown liquid began raining down.  "We'd ...

"In America today you can murder land for private profit.  You can leave the corpse for all to see, and nobody calls the cops." - Paul Brooks ...

. . . breathing deeply, after a Chinese travel company shipped bags of fresh mountain air to the smog-choked city of Zhengzhou as a treat for residents.  “I felt my baby move right when I breathed in,” said a pregnant woman ...

All 25,000 students who took an entrance exam for the University of Liberia failed the test. A university official said all the students “lacked enthusiasm ...

Portion of hogs slaughtered in the United States that are raised by a single Chinese company: 1/6 ...

Percentage of the world’s population that could fit in Texas by living with the population density of New York City: 100 ...

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 ...