“The [Florida] Marlins have spent about $396 million on player salaries from 2000 through 2010, with 873 victories and a World Series title to show. The [New York] Mets have spent about $1.212 billion on salaries in those seasons, with 878 victories and no championships. In other words, the Mets have spent about $816 million [...]
It’s Thursday morning and the press is chock-a-block with the sort of factoids that should make any American wince. For example: One in five Americans believes our President is a Muslim. Equally scary, 25 percent of Americans believe that Muslims are not patriotic Americans. Three cheers for the combo platter of ignorance and intolerance! (Somebody [...]
Haya El Nasser analyzes some just released Census data in this morning’s USA Today and offers up this stunner: Today, while 19.9% of Americans over 65 are racial minorities, 48.3% of kids under age 5 are. Now imagine the complexion of this country 40 years from now, when (most of) those older folks are gone and (most [...]
“In 1972, more boomers voted for Richard Nixon than for George McGovern. And in 2008, boomers were split evenly between Barack Obama and John McCain.” (Source: NY Times, 5.23.10)
1990 Number of U.S. births to mothers under 20: 533,000 Number of U.S. births to mothers over 35: 368,000 2008 Number of U.S. births to mothers under 20: 441,000 Number of U.S. births to mothers over 35: 603,000 Yes, according to the Pew Research Center and reported in today’s Washington Post, in the U.S. there [...]
“For the first time, marketers spent more in 2009 on Internet advertising than in magazines, according to a report from ZenithOptimedia, which said online ad spending would rapidly close ground on newspapers.” (Source: NY Times, 4/26/10)
The New York Times, in an excellent piece about why “the next big thing is small, cheap and not American,” offers this stunner about the ubiquity of cell phones across the globe: “The number of mobile subscriptions in the world is expected to pass five billion this year, according to the International Telecommunication Union, a [...]
The folks over at Challenger Gray & Christmas have taken a look at what happens in the workplace when people are lured into the force field that is the NCAA basketball tournament. The results? They estimate that during the first week of the tournament alone, workers distracted by March Madness (and that includes you, Mr. [...]
“In 2007, 47 percent of Harvard grads went into finance or consulting.” (Source: David Brooks, “The Power Elite,” NY Times, 02.18.10) BONUS! Quote of the day from the same column: “The meritocracy is based on an overly narrow definition of talent. Our system rewards those who can amass technical knowledge. But this skill is only [...]
In 2007, American women earned about 166 associates degrees and 135 bachelor’s degrees for every 100 earned by men. Among African-Americans, women earned 219 associate’s degrees and 192 bachelor’s degrees for every 100 earned by men. (Source: WSJ via Dep’t of Education, 2/12/10)
