Current Facts 18

Smoke Poisoning
You don't have to be a Russian spy to be poisoned with polonium 210. Polonium is extremely radioactive, and people who smoke a pack and a half a day absorb the equivalent of 300 chest X-rays a year.
The Week Magazine, Dec 15, 2006, Vol 6, Iss 289, Pg 12.

Presidential Quarters
Borrowing from the highly popular 50 state quarter program, the US Mint announced a new series of $1 coins featuring US presidents, highlighting four a year beginning in February 2007.
The Week Magazine, Dec 1, 2006, Vol 6, Iss 287, Pg 41.

Chocolate Blood Clot Reliever
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore discovered that a "chemical in cocoa beans has a biochemical effect similar to asprin," epidemiologist Diane Becker teold BBC News. A couple of tablespoons of dark chocolate a day, she says, could be just as good as asprin for reducing blood clots.
The Week Magazine, Dec 1, 2006, Vol 6, Iss 287, Pg 20.

Rich
For the first time in the 25 year history of Forbes magazine's annual list of the 400 richest Americans, everyone on the list is a billionaire.-The Washington Post.
The Week Magazine, October 6, 2006, Vol. 6, Iss. 279, pg. 40.

Postal Stamps & Boxes
By 2010 the US Postal Service will have phased out 23,000 postage-stamp vending machines. Many of the machines are 20 years old; and officials say there is a decline of first class mail.
The Week Magazine, November 3, 2006, Vol. 6, Iss. 283, pg 4.
As well as the decline, with people sending emails and paying bills online, the US Postal service will also start removing tens of thousands of underused mstreet-corner mailboxes.-Chicago Tribune
The Week Magazine, October 27, 2006, Vol. 6, Iss. 282, pg. 20.

Walnuts
Researchers from Barcelona's Hospital Clinico recentl found that when they gave volunteers a snack of eight walnuts immediately after they ate a meal high in saturated fats, the walnuts helped reverse the fats' ill effects on their cardiovascular systems. When we consume saturated fats, they begin stressing our hearts right away, by disrupting our ability to produce nitric oxide, which keeps blood vessels flexible. As we lose that flexibility, hardening of the arteries can set in, and we are at a greater risk of heart disease and stroke. But walnuts contain arginine, an amino acid used by the body to produce nitric oxide.
The Week Magazine, October 27, 2006, Vol. 6, Iss. 282, pg. 23.

Smoking
...In the mid-1980's, nearly a third of the American public smoked, as compared with 20 percent now...(Discover Magazine, October 2006, pg. 67)
Cigarettes pack more nicotine than they used to. Since 1998, the average nicotine yield of most brands of cigarettes has increased by at least ten percent. Brands that attract young and minority smokers, Kool Lights for example, has increased nicotine content by 30 percent. Anti-smoking activists say the sudden rise of nicotine levels in 92 of 116 brands is no accident, and shows that while the tobacco industry is pretending to be encouraging young peple not to smoke, by increasing nicotine levels, the make it harder to quit.
The Week Magazine, Sept. 15, 2006, vol 6, Iss. 276, pg. 25