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FactMe.com - Sunil's Interesting Fact of the Day - FactMe is updated daily with timely, interesting facts about business, science, technology, astronomy, sports, society, world, politics, animals, math, computers, history, and more!!! We have amazing facts, incredible facts, cool facts, neat facts, business facts, food facts, science facts, astronomy facts, sports facts, math facts, etc.
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April 6, 2008   |   Society FactID: 619
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Rated 4.50 stars
from 4 votes
Americans spent $16B on bottled water last year- that's more than was spent on movie tickets or iPods!

24% of the bottled water purchased in America is 're-purified' tap water (water clean enough to drink in the first place) from Coke (Dasani) and Pepsi (Aquafina)!


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Permanent linkLink | Share via emailEmail Fact | Share via AIMIM Fact | Source: Christina Miller


November 19, 2007   |   Society FactID: 617
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Rated 2.89 stars
from 9 votes
For the first time, two Hispanic surnames — Garcia and Rodriguez — are among the top 10 most common in the nation, according to the US census bureau.

It was probably the first time that any non-Anglo name was among the 10 most common in the nation.


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Permanent linkLink | Share via emailEmail Fact | Share via AIMIM Fact | Source: US Census Bureau via NYTimes article


April 24, 2007   |   Society FactID: 605
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Rated 3.11 stars
from 9 votes
Women make only 80% of the salaries their male peers do 1 year after college!

10 years after college, women earn only 69% of what men earn, in spite of the fact that women have slightly higher grade point averages than men in every major, including science and math -- all according to the American Association of University Women Educational Foundation.


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Permanent linkLink | Share via emailEmail Fact | Share via AIMIM Fact | Source: AJC newspaper article


March 24, 2007   |   Society FactID: 306
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Rated 4.20 stars
from 25 votes
Black and Asian women earn slightly more than similarly educated white women.

This is according to figures from the Census Bureau's annual look at educational achievement in America. Considering only college-educated women, an Asian makes $43,700 on average, a Black woman makes $41,100 and a white woman makes $37,800.

At $66,390, white men with four-year degrees top the list (Jason).


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Permanent linkLink | Share via emailEmail Fact | Share via AIMIM Fact | Source: CNN via Katie Higgins


January 16, 2007   |   Society FactID: 599
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Rated 4.29 stars
from 7 votes
More American women are living without a husband than with one.

In 2005, 51 percent of women said they were living without a spouse, up from 35 percent in 1950 and 49 percent in 2000. In addition, married couples are also a minority in the US, according to an old fact


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Permanent linkLink | Share via emailEmail Fact | Share via AIMIM Fact | Source: NYTimes article




January 2, 2007   |   Society FactID: 597
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Rated 4.00 stars
from 9 votes
In June 2006, Warren Buffett donated $37 billion to charity.

According to VH1, this is enough money to buy every single house in Deleware!

Buffett still lives in the same house he bought in his home town of Omaha, Nebraska, in 1957.


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Permanent linkLink | Share via emailEmail Fact | Share via AIMIM Fact | Source: VH1 Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous via Jason Langberg


December 15, 2006   |   Society FactID: 595
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Rated 3.80 stars
from 5 votes
Americans will devote nearly half of their time in 2007 to consuming media -- including TV, the Web, radio and printed materials, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The report found that Americans next year will log 3,518 hours using media -- equivalent to 146 days, or five months, and that total will include 1,555 hours in front of the TV.


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Permanent linkLink | Share via emailEmail Fact | Share via AIMIM Fact | Source: U.S. Census Bureau and USA Today


December 12, 2006   |   Society FactID: 594
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Rated 4.00 stars
from 6 votes
At private, nonprofit four-year colleges, average tuition rose 81% from 1993 to 2004 , more than double the inflation rate, according to the College Board.

Over the same period, campus-based financial aid rose 135%.


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Permanent linkLink | Share via emailEmail Fact | Share via AIMIM Fact | Source: NY Times article


November 25, 2006   |   Society FactID: 593
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Rated 4.60 stars
from 10 votes
4 in 10 U.S. children born in 2005 were out of wedlock.

Births among single mothers rose most dramatically among women in their 20s. Teen mothers were not responsible for the increase.


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Permanent linkLink | Share via emailEmail Fact | Share via AIMIM Fact | Source: CNN via Shaival Patel


November 8, 2006   |   Society FactID: 226
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Rated 4.18 stars
from 22 votes
There are 5 million more women than men in America! The US is 49.1% male and 50.9% female.

Looks like Nevada and Alaska are the only places where men really outnumber women.

Other interesting news: 1 out of 4 Americans can't vote (they're under 18). And there are almost 7 million completely vacant housing units in the US.


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Permanent linkLink | Share via emailEmail Fact | Share via AIMIM Fact | Source: US Census Bureau Fact Sheet




November 4, 2006   |   Society FactID: 341
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Rated 4.46 stars
from 24 votes
Each year in Los Angeles people spend 93 hours sitting in traffic.

That's almost 4 whole days every year just sitting in traffic! Other cities in the top five are San Francisco (72), DC (69), and Atlanta (67), & Houston (63).

This is from the Texas Transportation Institute which recently released its 2005 Mobility Study. Each year the study looks at, among other things, how much time people spend in traffic.


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Permanent linkLink | Share via emailEmail Fact | Share via AIMIM Fact | Source: LA Times and TTI via Jason Langberg


October 16, 2006   |   Society FactID: 587
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Rated 4.00 stars
from 5 votes
Married couples are the minority in the US!

The American Community Survey, released this month by the Census Bureau, found that 49.7% of the nation’s 111.1 million households in 2005 were made up of married couples — with and without children. Five years ago, 52% of US households were of married couples.


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Permanent linkLink | Share via emailEmail Fact | Share via AIMIM Fact | Source: Census Bureau via NYTimes article


September 4, 2006   |   Society FactID: 584
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Rated 3.15 stars
from 13 votes
Over 50% of new-car loans were for five, six, even seven years last year, according to the Consumer Bankers Association.

That was up from 22% in 2000!


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Permanent linkLink | Share via emailEmail Fact | Share via AIMIM Fact | Source: Bankrate.com


August 9, 2006   |   Society FactID: 582
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Rated 4.50 stars
from 14 votes
A generation ago the average pay of Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) was 40 times that of a worker.

Today, CEO compensation can be 500 times as much as his or her employees ($10,000,000 vs. $20,000)!


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Permanent linkLink | Share via emailEmail Fact | Share via AIMIM Fact | Source: NY Times article and AFL-CIO database via Shruti Nagaraj


August 7, 2006   |   Society FactID: 580
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Rated 4.00 stars
from 10 votes
According to Money magazine, Raleigh, NC is the 4th best big city to live -- one rank above San Diego, CA!


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Permanent linkLink | Share via emailEmail Fact | Share via AIMIM Fact | Source: CNN Money via Chris Shields




July 30, 2006   |   Society FactID: 576
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Rated 4.25 stars
from 8 votes
There are 2 million weddings every year in the US -- and the average price tag is $26,000!


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Permanent linkLink | Share via emailEmail Fact | Share via AIMIM Fact | Source: CharityFocus.org


July 14, 2006   |   Society FactID: 569
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Rated 4.00 stars
from 8 votes
On average, individuals in the industrialized world spend three hours each day watching television.

This is half of their leisure time, and more than on any single activity save work and sleep.


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Permanent linkLink | Share via emailEmail Fact | Share via AIMIM Fact | Source: Scientific American


June 26, 2006   |   Society FactID: 564
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Rated 4.00 stars
from 7 votes
Approximately one fifth of all humans that have existed in the last six thousand years are currently alive.

And another interesting fact about the US population and Taco Bell.


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Permanent linkLink | Share via emailEmail Fact | Share via AIMIM Fact | Source: Wikipedia via Quinn McCleery


May 18, 2006   |   Society FactID: 557
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Rated 3.30 stars
from 10 votes
In the United States, Mother's Day was originally conceived by social activist Julia Ward Howe during the American Civil War with a call to unite women against war. She wrote the Mother's Day Proclamation in 1870 as part of the feminist belief of women's power to shape society.

In the United States, the day now simply celebrates motherhood and thanking mothers.


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March 17, 2006   |   Society FactID: 541
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Rated 4.75 stars
from 12 votes
According to the U.S. Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis, Americans spent more than they earned in 2005 -- a negative savings rate of 0.5% for the year.

That's the first time that's happened since the Great Depression.


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Permanent linkLink | Share via emailEmail Fact | Share via AIMIM Fact | Source: Bankrate.com




March 15, 2006   |   Society FactID: 540
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Rated 4.22 stars
from 9 votes
According to the New York Times, there are now 1.33 women graduating from college for every 1 man.


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Permanent linkLink | Share via emailEmail Fact | Share via AIMIM Fact | Source: NY Times


March 3, 2006   |   Society FactID: 538
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Rated 3.83 stars
from 6 votes
Children's TV programming is more violent than mainstream adult programming.

According to the Parents Television Council, children's programming contained an average of 6.3 instances of violence per hour, compared with 4.71 such incidents during prime-time programming -- these figures even exclude "cartoony" violence (when an anvil falls on Wile E. Coyote during a Looney Tunes cartoon)!


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Permanent linkLink | Share via emailEmail Fact | Share via AIMIM Fact | Source: MediaWeek


February 15, 2006   |   Society FactID: 533
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Rated 2.80 stars
from 5 votes
The average American house built in 2005 was 2,349 square feet in size, a 12% increase from ten years ago.

And then there's the August fact about a 14% increase in prices this past year.


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Permanent linkLink | Share via emailEmail Fact | Share via AIMIM Fact | Source: The Economist


January 30, 2006   |   Society FactID: 527
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Rated 4.21 stars
from 14 votes
In 2005, 12% of US newlyweds met online.


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Permanent linkLink | Share via emailEmail Fact | Share via AIMIM Fact | Source: McKinsey


January 21, 2006   |   Society FactID: 523
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Rated 3.33 stars
from 9 votes
There are 2.1 billion Christians in the world. This includes just over a billion Catholics, about 350 million Protestants, and the Orthodox and Anglican faiths.

Islam is the world's second-largest religion, with roughly 1.3 billion followers -- including 940 million Sunnis and 170 million Shiites, as well as those belonging to other Muslim faiths like Sufism. Hindus are the third largest group at just under a billion.


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Permanent linkLink | Share via emailEmail Fact | Share via AIMIM Fact | Source: Ask Yahoo!




December 27, 2005   |   Society FactID: 511
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Rated 4.00 stars
from 7 votes
The average American family has $8,100 of total credit card debt. If they paid only the minimum amount due each month, this would take approximately 30 years to pay off.

31% of the credit card industry's profits came in the form of late-payment fees, over-limit fees, etc.


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Permanent linkLink | Share via emailEmail Fact | Share via AIMIM Fact | Source: Bankrate.com


November 23, 2005   |   Society FactID: 487
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Rated 3.18 stars
from 11 votes
In a discussion of why some technological innovations succeed while others fail, many researchers adhere to Rogers' (1983) "Ideal Adopter Categories," which group individuals according to how and when they adopt changes.

The first category, innovators, comprises only 2.5% of society, and they are the people who create new ideas and new products. The other categories are early adopters (13.5%), early majority (34%), late majority (34%) and laggards (16%). Laggards never fully adopt a change.


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Permanent linkLink | Share via emailEmail Fact | Share via AIMIM Fact | Source: TechnologySource.org & FindArticles.com via Kate Hardeman


November 1, 2005   |   Society FactID: 469
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Rated 3.75 stars
from 12 votes
The United States leads the world in one-person households. 26% of US households are home to only one person.

Kinda lonely...


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October 27, 2005   |   Society FactID: 466
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Rated 4.20 stars
from 10 votes
Full-time Wal-Mart employees earn on average ~$17,500 a year.

46% of the children of Wal-Mart's 1.33 million United States employees were uninsured or on Medicaid.


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Permanent linkLink | Share via emailEmail Fact | Share via AIMIM Fact | Source: NYTimes via Ankeet Shah


October 6, 2005   |   Society FactID: 450
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Rated 3.56 stars
from 9 votes
Oh say can you sing...

ABC News reports that 61% of Americans don’t know the words to “The Star-Spangled Banner.”


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October 2, 2005   |   Society FactID: 447
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Rated 4.30 stars
from 10 votes
Cognitive scientists make a distinction between short-term, or working memory, and long-term, or secondary memory. Research suggests that generally only seven items can be stored for about a minute in short-term memory, whereas long-term memory is limitless.


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Permanent linkLink | Share via emailEmail Fact | Share via AIMIM Fact | Source: "Cognitive Approaches to Grammar Instruction" via Kate Hardeman


September 8, 2005   |   Society FactID: 432
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Rated 4.55 stars
from 11 votes
An American child will consume and pollute more over a lifetime than 30 children born in India.

Our economy also uses more resources than any other nation and generates one quarter of the greenhouse gases contributing to global warming.


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Permanent linkLink | Share via emailEmail Fact | Share via AIMIM Fact | Source: Nova: World In the Balance on PBS via Shruti Nagaraj


August 25, 2005   |   Society FactID: 421
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Rated 3.38 stars
from 8 votes
The median price of existing homes in America is $218,000 -- a 14.1% increase from the past year.


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