25 years ago, the average vehicle accelerated to 60 miles an hour in 14.4 seconds. Today, average 0-60mph time is 9.9 seconds.
Vehicle weight now averages about 4,100 pounds, up from about 3,200 in the early 1980's... The increase in vehicle acceleration and weight alone has raised emissions of carbon dioxide in the United States by about 5 percent.
The 2006 Cadillac STS-V, which can reach 60 m.p.h. in less than five seconds, is one of many cars that now have more than enough horsepower to pull an 18-wheeler.
The IRS audited 21% more returns last year than in 2004.
Income groups with the highest percentage of audits were taxpayers who reported income less than $25,000 (1.5% were audited) and between $100,000 and $200,000 (1.4% were audited).
George Washington was not the first president of the United States.
After beating the British, we adopted the Articles of Confederation on March 1, 1781 -- forming a new country. John Hanson was chosen by Congress to be the first President of the United States. During his term, Hanson established the first Treasury Department, the first Secretary of War, and the first Foreign Affairs Department. Hanson also declared that the fourth Thursday of every November was to be Thanksgiving Day - still true today!
The Articles of Confederation only allowed a President to serve a one-year term, so there were 7 other Presidents before the U.S. Constitution was ratified in 1789... making George Washington the 8th President.
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.
The asteroid "3554 Amun" will cross the Earth's orbit in 2020. It contains (at today's prices) roughly $8 trillion worth of iron and nickel, $6 trillion of cobalt, and $6 trillion of platinum-like metals.
In other words, whoever owns Amun could become 450 times as wealthy as Bill Gates.
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)!