Current Facts 27

Bush’s Re-election & Immigration
The day after George W Bush was announced as re-elected in 2004, Canada’s main immigration website (which normally averaged 20,000 visitors a day) had 115 visitors.
The Best Book of Useless Information Ever #3, p.172

Tattoo Removal Cream
Cosmetic surgeons are now offering a cream called Rejuvi. Once injected into the skin the cream is absorbed by the pigmented cells and softens the ink, pushing it to the surface of the skin where it forms a scab. When the scab falls off after six to eight weeks, the ink goes with it. The reason a tattoo stays is that a coating is placed around the ink to protect it from the body's immune response. This cream makes the ink identifiable to the body so it rejects and heals itself.
“Unwanted Tattoos…” By Rebecca Camber, Daily Mail Posting, 8.27.08.

Northern Lights
The aurora borealis has been explained by five NASA satellites and 20 ground observatories who tracked the source. An explosion of magnetic energy 80,000 miles from Earth (relating to Earth’s magnetic field and solar winds). They discovered that Earth’s magnetic field extends into space and meets a solar wind about 1/3 of the distance to the moon and is stretched into thin lines like a rubber band. Solar energy surges strum the explosion we see and hear.
The Week Magazine, 8.8.08, v.8, i.373, p.22.

China’s Weather Control for Olympics
Cloud Seeding – which works by blasting clouds with substances, such as silver iodide, enlarge the size of a cloud’s droplets. Chinese meteorologists have tweaked the process to shrink droplets, preventing stormy clouds long enough from raining on the open roof stadiums. The Beijing Meteorological Bureau claims to have used similar techniques for events in 1993 & 1999. The country has the worlds largest weather engineering program ($90 million annually) and has been credited with generating 25% of the rainfall in certain providences.
Mental_Floss, Jul-Aug 2008, v.7, i.4, p.65.

Olympic Age
The average age of America’s Olympic athletes is now about 27, up from 24 a generation ago. Experts attribute the trend to advances in training and injury-recovery techniques, as well as rule changes that allow athletes to make money and still retain their Olympic eligibility. 21 members of the US team are 40 or older. –USA Today.
The Week Magazine, 8.8.08, v.8, i.373, p.18.

Beijing Olympics ‘08
Every gold medal captured in the Olympics typically costs a country $37 million in training costs. China ended with 51 gold medals (the most of any nation) and the US had the most overall medals at 110.
The depth of the pool in Beijing helped the speed of swimmers. The pool was 3 feet deeper than other Olympics, which reduced drag on a swimmers body by extending the bow wave from clashing with the stem wave (lessening the backward pull). Experts stress that the pool is within official size limits.
Dozens of political activists were arrested or beaten during the Games, as were 22 foreign journalists. Of the 77 Chinese who applied to demonstrate in official “protest zones,” not one was given approval, and many were arrested. Some (of the 1.5 million residents of Beijing who lost their homes to make room for the facilities) now face a year of “re-education through labor.”
NBC earned “a healthy return on its $894 million” investment in the Games – more than $100 million by some estimates. The Games drew more than 200 million US viewers. “Some investors have questioned the broadcasters fit with GE’s financial and industrial divisions,” but NBC’s Olympics-related profits could quell such doubts.
The Week Magazine, 9.5.08, v.8, i.377, p.4, 16-17, 19 & 34.

Digital (Contact-like) Lens
The digital lens contains metal circuits that are about one-thousandth the width of a human hair, produced with nanotechnology. Once all the circuits come together, the lens can run on solar energy. University of Washington assistant professor Babak Parviz elaborates that the lens will superimpose digital information onto your visional field. Here are some of the perks; a micro video camera that compares faces to a database and projects in your visual field their names (if you forgot) and personal information, take a tiny graphic from online and expand it on your visual field to see if a picture would look good on a wall in your home, follow step-by-step diagrams and instructions (for assembling furniture or fixing your transmission) on the real objects where light-emitting diodes superimpose the steps for you, instant translucent GPS maps, etc.
Mental_Floss, Jul-Aug 2008, v.7, i.4, p.18.

Internet Citizen Access
The US has 223.1 million citizens with internet access, China has 253 million.
The Week Magazine, 8.8.08, v.8, i.373, p.18.

Deadly Areas
The average American stands a 1 in 5,552 chance of dying in a plane crash (including small private planes), and a 1 in 247 chance in a car wreck. –NY Times. According to List Universe, here are the top 3 (of 10) Most Fatal Occupations (based on US statistics) - 3. Pilots & Flight Engineers (Crop Dusting, testing new and experimental flight equipment, etc) 88 out of 100,000 (~100 deaths last year), 2. Commercial Fisherman 142 out of 100,000 (~50 deaths last year), & 1. Cell Phone Tower Workers 184 out of 100,000 (~20 deaths last year).
The Week Magazine, 8.8.08, v.8, i.373, p.18. "Top 10 Most Fatal Occupations" Published on List Universe August 26, 2008.

Eco Pedal
Next year Nissan will introduce a gas pedal that pushes back when it senses drivers are accelerating too quickly. The “Eco Pedal” system can improve fuel efficiency by 5-10%. – Associated Press
The Week Magazine, 8.15.08, v.8, i.374, p.36.

More Oil Profits
ExxonMobile posted second-quarter earnings of $11.7 billion, the largest quarterly profit ever recorded by any company. –Houston Chronicle.
The Week Magazine, 8.15.08, v.8, i.374, p.36.

Texas Leads in Sex Ed Spending
Texas spends $17 million a year (more than any other state) on abstinence-only sex education programs. The rate of Texas high school students having sexual intercourse, according to federal statistics, stands at 52.9%, compared with 47.8 nationally. –Houston Chronicle.
The Week Magazine, August 1, 2008, v.8, i.372, p.18.

Product Placement
Advertisers spent a record $2.9 billion on product placement in 2007, a 33.7% increase over the previous year.-Los Angeles Times.
The Week Magazine, August 1, 2008, v.8, i.372, p.18.

Europeans McDonald’s Junkies
Europe has surpassed the US as the McDonald’s fastfood chain’s biggest region by revenue. Despite having about a quarter the number of locations as in the US, McDonald’s Europe earned $8.9 billion last year, versus $7.9 billion in the US. –BusinessWeek.com.
The Week Magazine, August 1, 2008, v.8, i.372, p.36.

Population
It took thousands of years of human history before the population hit 1 billion in 1800, and it took 130 years to reach the 2 billion mark. The Census Bureau projects that by 2012, the world's population will reach 7 billion (just 13 years after reaching 6 billion).
The Week Magazine, July 4-11, 2008, v.8, i.368/369, p.20.

Vinyl
Sales of turntables have spiked 500 percent every year for the past 4 years.
The Week Magazine, June 13, 2008, v.8, i.365, p.16.

Administration Departure
With 8 months left, 56% of 1,100 administration officials under Bush's direct control are either vacant or filled by temporary appointees.
The Week Magazine, June 13, 2008, v.8, i.365, p.16.

US Debt
The Federal Budget showed a surplus for the year 2001 of $281 billion (the largest in American history) and the ten-year surplus was projected to be $5.6 trillion. We wer on track to completely eliminate the national debt by 2009. As of April 2008, the total U.S. federal debt was approximately $9.5 trillion.
It's Still the Economy Stupid, Paul Begala, 2002, pg. 17.

Turning Bacteria into Oil
Bell Plantations in Tifton, Georgia are developing a way to convert bacteria into hydrocarbons in a matter of months, rather than the millions of years it takes for fossils to degrade into usable fuels. By genetically manipulating the bacteria, they believe they can produce different molecular chains to produce the basis for gasoline, diesel, propane and a variety of other hydrocarbon fuels. We should know pretty soon if this can work. If so, present plans call for 500 nationwide production facilities within 18 months, which would give Bell Plantations the capacity to produce up to 500,000 barrels a day within two years.
North Star Writers Group - Dan Calabrese, 5.26.08 Posting.

Trashed Food
Americans throw out about 27 percent of the 350 million pounds of food they buy every year.-The New York Times
The Week Magazine, May 30, 2008, v.8, i.363, p.18.

Transportation
From January through March ridership on public transit increased 3% nationwide to 2.6 billion rides.
Americans drove 1.4 billion fewer highway miles this April than they did in 2007, according to the US Department of Transportation. Since the beginning of the year, motorists have logged 20 billion fewer miles than they did last year at this time.
The Week Magazine, June 13, 2008, v.8, i.365, p.34.
The Week Magazine, July 4-11, 2008, v.8, i.368/369, p.20.

Spam
Hormels spam sales jumped 9% since the first of the year due to other high food pricings.
The Week Magazine, June 13, 2008, v.8, i.365, p.34.

Spoken Languages
There are roughly 6,500 spoken languages in the world today. About 2,000 of those are spoken by fewer than 1,000 people. The most widely spoken language in the world is Mandarin Chinese (with 885 million speakers in China alone).
The Amazing Book of Useless Information #4 p.2.

Lipstick Usage
The average women uses up approximately her height in lipstick every 5 years.
The Amazing Book of Useless Information #4 p.47.

Popular in Sit-Down Restaurants
Fried chicken is the most popular meal ordered in sit-down restaurants in the US, followed by roast beef, spaghetti, turkey, baked ham and fried shrimp.
The Amazing Book of Useless Information #4 p. 172.

California Tourist Destination
The wine district of the Napa Valley has replaced Disneyland as California’s number one tourist destination, with 5.5 million visitors per year.
The Amazing Book of Useless Information #4 p. 204.

Presence on Americas
Recently discovered footprints in volcanic ash of central Mexico’s Valsequillo Basin about 40,000 years ago reveal humans inhabited Americas longer than previously expected. Previous studies suggested human presence in the Western Hemisphere for at least 20,000, but results before 14,000 had been controversial.
Science News Magazine, 7.5.08, p.8.

Tap Water Linked to Diabetes
Arsenic in the IS water supply may be linked to an upswing in cases of type 2 diabetes.
The Week Magazine, 9.5.08, v.8, i.377, p.19.

Highest-Paid US Executives
Oracle Corp CEO Larry Ellison was the highest-paid US executive in 2007, $85 million in cash, stock and perks. Merill Lynch’s John Thain was second with $83 million followed by CBS Corp’s Leslie Moonves at $68 million.-Associated Press
The Week Magazine, 9.5.08, v.8, i.377, p.34.

World’s Most Profitable Bank
Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd earned $9.42 billion in its first half of the year, a 57% rise in profit, becoming the world’s most profitable bank.-Marketwatch.com
The Week Magazine, 9.5.08, v.8, i.377, p.34.