Inches of Rainfall
4.36 – The average rainfall, in inches, for the contiguous United States in May, the country’s wettest month since record keeping began in 1895.
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The Man Who Removed His Own Appendix
Leonid Ivanovich Rogozov was a Soviet general practitioner who took part in the sixth Soviet Antarctic Expedition in 1960–1961. He was the only doctor stationed at the Novolazarevskaya Station and, while there, developed appendicitis, which meant he had to perform an appendectomy on himself, a famous case of self-surgery. Leonid Rogozov was born in Dauriya Station, Chita Oblast, a remote […]
Read moreDanger At Rest
The typical worker is three times more likely to die during leisure time than on the job.
Read morePleading Guilty
Percentage of all criminal defendants in the United States who forgo a trial by pleading guilty: 97 Percentage of U.S. convicts exonerated last year who had previously pleaded guilty without a trial: 17
Read moreCalorie Information
Chance that an American fast-food customer uses posted calorie information to make food buying decisions: 1 in 6
Read moreAir Pollution
Portion of Americans who live in areas harmful levels of air pollution: 1/2 Number of the top five most polluted cities in the country that are in California: 5
Read moreArmy Qualification
Just 30 percent of Americans aged 17 to 24 are eligible to become soldiers, according to the U.S. Army. The remaining 70 percent of young people are either too obese or are disqualified because they have a criminal history or didn’t finish high school.
Read moreFood Stamp Benefits Spending Has Gone Up
The government spent $74.6 billion on food stamp benefits last year, up from $30.4 billion in 2007. With 15 percent of Americans now receiving food stamps, the program’s budget is equivalent to the combined budgets of the Department of Homeland Security, the Justice Department, and the Department of the Interior.
Read moreTravel Time
68.4 – The number of minutes Americans spend traveling each day, per capita, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The number is down from 74.4 minutes in 2003.
Read moreWartime bomb defused
Residents were evacuated, trains diverted, and flights briefly suspended this week as police experts defused a 220-pound bomb left over from World War II. The Soviet ordnance was found at a construction site near Berlin’s main train station, which is located in a relatively sparsely inhabited quarter close to the former dividing line between East and West Berlin. Such finds […]
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