At Kmart stores across the country, Santa seems to be getting some help: Anonymous donors are paying off strangers’ layaway accounts, buying the Christmas gifts other families couldn’t afford, especially toys and children’s clothes set aside by impoverished parents. (via cbs8.com)
46 Million Americans Now Living In Poverty, Highest Level In 18 Years
“Overall, median income has changed very little compared to rising consumer prices over the last 30 years. Adjusted for inflation, the middle-income family only earns 11% more than they did in 1980, while consumer prices have risen roughly 155%.”
How many languages does a typical United States president know?
Results from the data:
- 25 presidents were only fluent in one language. (English)
- 44 presidents were fluent in a total of 78 languages. That comes out to 1.77 languages per president.
- Only one president was fluent in Mandarin. (Herbert Hoover)
- Only one president’s first language was not English. (Martin Van Buren—Dutch)
- Thomas Jefferson was simply a boss for being fluent in 6 languages. (English, French, Greek, Italian, Latin & Spanish)
- If you look at the last 12 presidents in the United States, 11 of them were only fluent in one language. So you could say that the typical US president today only needs to know one language, English.
(via cacioppo)
Life expectancy in the U.S. varies widely by region, in some places is decreasing
Large swaths of the United States are showing decreasing or stagnating life expectancy even as the nation’s overall longevity trend has continued upwards, according to a county-by-county study of life expectancy over two decades. In one-quarter of the country, girls born today may live shorter lives than their mothers, and the country as a whole is falling behind other industrialized nations in the march toward longer life, according to the study.
(via theatlantic)
At New York’s Private Schools, Rutabaga Fries, Not Tater Tots - NYTimes.com
Here is what $35,000 buys today: Steak and blue cheese tossed with dandelion greens. Artichoke, tomatoes and fennel with penne. Oven-roasted rutabaga fries. And a rigorous education, to boot.
$1.2 trillion: How much Americans spend annually on goods and services they don’t absolutely need. (via WSJ)
"Everyone thought the post office was honoring just one great American institution when in reality they were honoring two — the Statue of Liberty and Las Vegas."
USPS Puts Wrong Statue Of Liberty On Stamp, Doesn’t Really Give A F*&k
You almost have to respect the USPS for screwing up this royally. First, they go and put the wrong Statue of Liberty on a postage stamp. Then, when told about it, they just shrug it off like a postal worker eating a sandwich at their closed window while a line of customers waits. (via The Consumerist)
