How common are terrorist attacks?
E number of jihadist terror plots in Europe, North America and Australia has risen alarmingly in 2009, according to a report from Control Risks, a security consultancy. But plots are rarely successful, probably because of improved gathering and sharing of intelligence, better security (especially at airports) and bad planning. According to newspaper reports and court records, seven planned attacks were exposed between January and October this year and only one (a small and inconsequential attack on Italian barracks) was carried…
1 min read
What are the best jobs in America?:
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Will luxury goods go on sale this Christmas?
ks and Barneys and the rest of those luxury retailers have discovered that nothing destroys a luxury brand like a sale: All around Saks Fifth Avenue, merchandise is sold out. The $2,520 Marni shearling vest? Gone. The $5,295 Brioni leather bomber jacket? Only one left. The $1,995 over-the-knee Christian Louboutin boots? The $1,995 over-the-knee Christian Louboutin boots at Saks have sold out, unless you can wear the only pair left -- a size 11. "All gone, except for this," said…
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How much TV do Americans watch every day?
e Nielsen Company These numbers never cease to amaze. The average American spent “four hours and 49 minutes a day on average in front of the TV” during the most recent TV season, The Nielsen Company said Tuesday. A few minutes shy of the five-hour mark, the 2008-9 season average is the highest ever, according to Nielsen, up four minutes from the previous year. Compared with 10 years ago, viewing is up 20 percent. And how long are the…
1 min read
Who is Hollywood’s most overpaid star?
nnyman Will Ferrell and British actor Ewan McGregor on Wednesday headed a Forbes.com list of Hollywood's most overpaid stars when looking at the financial returns of their movies. Billy Bob Thornton, Tom Cruise and Jim Carrey also made the top 10 tally of actors who cost more to hire than they appear to be worth at box offices. Ferrell took first place largely due to the flop of his summer 2009 movie "Land of the Lost", which Forbes said cost…
1 min read
The curious economic effects of religion:
e two collected data from 59 countries where a majority of the population followed one of the four major religions, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, or Buddhism. They ran this data - which covered slices of years from 1981 to 2000, measuring things like levels of belief in God, afterlife beliefs, and worship attendance - through statistical models. Their results show a strong correlation between economic growth and certain shifts in beliefs, though only in developing countries. Most strikingly, if belief in…
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Yawning is part of what makes us human
y do we yawn? Dogs do it, lions do it, even babies in the womb do it - but nobody really knows why. Theories abound. We open wide when we are tired, bored, or hungry. Some have suggested that a sudden drop in blood oxygen, or a surge of carbon dioxide pumped out by a tired body, sparks it off – but no, breathing air rich in that gas, or with extra oxygen, makes no difference. It happens on hot…
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Sports, sex, and the runner Caster Semenya
menya won the eight-hundred-metre title by nearly two and a half seconds, finishing in 1:55.45. After the first lap of the race, she cruised past her competitors like a machine. She has a powerful stride and remarkable efficiency of movement: in footage of the World Championships, you can see the other runners thrashing behind her, but her trunk stays still, even as she is pumping her muscle-bound arms up and down. Her win looks effortless, inevitable. “Even when we were…
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