Issue 5 2010: May
SALARIES
Nearly 2,000 House of Representatives staffers pulled down six-figure salaries in 2009, including 43 who earned the maximum $172,500 - more than three times the median U.S. household income. ..... Politico.com
WATER AND COWS
It takes 1857 gallons of water to produce one pound of beef. The typical cow will consume 816,600 gallons of water during a lifetime.(water consumed by the cow, water used in growing feed for the cow, and water used to clean stables/farmyards). ..... National Geographic - (thanks to Eddie Crowder).
BANKS
The FDIC closed seven banks in recent days, including three in Puerto Rico, bringing the total number of U.S. bank closures this year to 64. The FDIC closed 140 banks in 2009 and just 25 in 2008. ..... Zachs Equity Research
APPLE iPAD
Apple sold more than 1 million iPad tablet computers in the first 28 days after its April 3 launch. It took 74 days from the launch of the iPhone for Apple to sell its millionth unit. ..... Associated Press
NOW THAT'S A WHOPPER
Burger King's Brazil operation is testing a new way to remind customers to "have it your way." A hidden camera behind the counter photographs customers when they're placing their orders, then prints out a customized wrapper with the customer's picture printed on it. ..... CNET.com
CSI: YOUR BACTERIA MAY GIVE YOU AWAY
The skin on your hands harbors a teaming "tropical rain forest" of bacteria - about 150 different species mixed in proportions that are unique to you. So when you touch something, you leave behind a microbial trace - one sufficiently distinctive, a new study indicates, to identify you as reliably as a fingerprint would. University of Colorado researchers gave computer mice to three people to use and afterward sampled the bacterial colonies left behind on the devices: they then compared what they found with a database of colonies collected from 270 other people. In every case, the mix of bacteria on the mouse closely matched that on the owner's palm but not anyone else's. "It suggests a new approach to forensics," says Martin Blaser, a forensics expert at New York University who was not involved in the study. ..... The Week
THE BIBLE AND THE FLOOD
A team of evangelical explorers claimed to have found pieces of wood atop Mount Ararat in Turkey that were once part of Noah's Ark. "It's not 100 percent that it is Noah's Ark," said one explorer, "but we think it is 99 percent." ..... The Week
VICES - NO SURPRISE HERE
A British study found that a combination of smoking, drinking, inactivity, and a poor diet makes people 12 years older than they really are, and often leads to an early demise. ..... The Week
TIGERS
The tiger population of Asia has plummeted from 100,000 tigers in 1990 to just 3,200, according to the U.N. Tigers are illegally hunted for their skins and for body parts used in traditional medicine. ..... Associated Press
AMERICAN SAVERS
About 43 percent of Americans have saved less than $10,000 for retirement, a new study found. ..... CNNmoney.com
THE CHANGING FACE OF AMERICA
About 48% of the children now born in the U.S. are nonwhite, and demographers say 2010 could be the "tipping point," when the number of babies born to Hispanics, blacks, and Asians collectively surpasses that of babies born to whites. ..... Associated Press
MILT'S MORSEL OF THE MONTH
"Holding anger is like holding a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned." ..... Buddha, quoted in the Salt Lake City Desert Morning News
JIM'S STETHASCOOP
"Always do right. It will please some people and astonish the rest." ..... Mark Twain, quoted in the Financial Times
