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.
Read moreTag: trends
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.
Read moreSeparated 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 she’d been separated at birth; she was living hundreds of miles away. Each had been adopted and raised with no […]
Read moreThe Oldest Person In The World
The oldest person in the world, JeraleanTalley of Michigan, turned 116 last week. The two oldest persons ever known to science, Sarah Knauss of Pennsylvania and Jeanne Calment of France, reached 119 and 122, respectively.
Read moreOdds Of Being Killed At School
Yearly odds of a U.S. student being killed at school: 1 in 3 million
Read moreMissing Airplanes
Total number of passenger planes that have gone missing without a trace since 2000: 10
Read moreElephant slaughter
After decimating the Tanzanian elephant population, poachers have now killed half of the elephants in neighboring Mozambique in just five years. A survey by Mozambique’s government and the U.S.-based Wildlife Conservation Society found that the herd has shrunk from 20,000 in 2010 to just over 10,000 animals today. “This decline is due to rampant elephant poaching in the country’s most important […]
Read moreRatio of Shootings In Our Own Communities
Ratio of shooters in the U.S. who attack their own communities: 2 in 3
Read moreSeeing The Light In China
Bad drivers in Shenzhen, China, who blast oncoming motorists with high beam headlights will now face in-kind punishment from police. Police officials in the Chinese city said drivers who abuse the use of high beams will be stopped by police, ticketed for roughly $50, pulled from their car, and forced to stare into police cruiser headlights for five minutes. According […]
Read moreChernobyl Still Taking Its Toll
A quarter-century has passed since the meltdown at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant unleashed a radioactive cloud across the northern hemisphere. A new study estimates that 27,000 people have died worldwide as a result of the worst nuclear accident in history, in large part from cancers stemming from the release.
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