STARTLING FACTS ABOUT AMERICAN SOCIETY AND CULTURE
• Each American now produces about 4.9 pounds of trash daily, totaling over 1.6 billion pounds of trash per day.
• 61 percent of Americans believe in ghosts. 16 percent believe in witches. 23 percent believe in reincarnation.
• 6 percent of Americans believe the Apollo 11 moon landing was faked.
• Average height for American men: 5’9″. Average height for American women: 5’3.5″–5’4″.
• The U.S. now has about 890 vehicles per 1,000 residents, still among the highest in the world, with only a few small European nations ahead.
• The U.S. now holds over 1.9 million people in correctional facilities.
SCIENTISTS CONTINUE TO CREATE SINGLE LIST OF EARTH’S LIVING SPECIES _ A global team of scientists continues working to create a single, authoritative list of all known species on Earth. The Catalogue of Life, currently the most comprehensive effort, now includes over 2.2 million accepted species and is updated regularly by hundreds of experts. They have a long way to go since millions of species are still unknown, especially among microbes and invertebrates.
IS THIS A RED FLAG? _ On the NoStupidQuestions subreddit, a guy writes: “My girlfriend and I were talking the other day about some crazy stuff that has happened in the past. She has been very open with me and I love that. She told me one story about her holding up a convenience store 15 year ago at knife point and getting away with it. I was a little stunned. She said she has not done anything like that since. Would you consider this a red flag? Now if she did this yesterday, I would immediately break up with her. But if she did this 15 years ago and hasn’t done it since, would you still think it’s a red flag? We have been dating for about 9 months.” From the comment section:
• Why did she do it? Was she broke and starving or she did it for giggles? I feel like that’s kind of important here.
• People do dumb things. Try to judge her by who she is and how you’ll think you’ll grow together. Not for some dumb thing she did 15 years ago.
• Is there a universe in which robbing a store at knife point wouldn’t be a red flag? I mean, yes, she may have changed since then. Perhaps she is no longer the person who would rob a store with a deadly weapon, but it will always be a red flag.
• 15 years ago isn’t the thing I would focus on, the age she did it would though. Lots of differences between a 5 year-old, 15 yeaer-old, and a 25 yeaer-old committing a robbery.
