Shorter Drives

#transport - U.S. motorists drove at least 100 billion fewer miles November 2007-October 2008 than in the same period a year earlier, according to U.S. transportation officials.

The Highway Trust Fund financed primarily by federal gas tax receipts, collected $31 billion in revenue October 2007-September 2008, $3 billion less than it collected in fiscal year 2007.

Source: UPI

Everest Deaths

#death - Most deaths on Mount Everest occur above 8,000 meters during descents from the summit in the so-called "death zone".

Researchers who analyzed the reported 212 deaths on the 29,000-foot mountain between 1921 and 2006 have concluded that high-altitude cerebral edema appears to be associated with an increased risk of death.

The American, British and Canadian researchers found that the overall death rate for climbers and sherpas (locals hired to assist climbers) over those 86 years was 1.3 percent (1.6 percent among climbers and 1.1 percent among sherpas). Over the past 25 years, the death rate for climbers descending via the longer Tibetan northeast ridge was 3.4 percent, and 2.5 percent on the shorter Nepal route.

Source: Washington Post

Largest Animal

#animals - There are estimated to the less than 25,000 Blue Whale's left in the world's oceans, no more than 11 percent of the 1911 Blue Whale population.

The Blue Whale (Balaenoptera musculus) is believed to be the largest animal to have ever lived: even larger than the largest dinosaur. A member of the order Cetacea, the maximum recorded weight of a Blue Whale was 190 tonnes (209 tons) for a specimen measuring 30 m (100 ft) in length, while longer ones, up to 33.3 m (110 ft), have been recorded but not weighed.

Blue Whale populations have been severely depleted by whaling and approximately 360,000 Blue Whales are estimated to have been caught and killed in the Southern Hemisphere during the 20th century. Before whaling the largest population of Blue Whales was in the Antarctic, numbering between 202,000 and 311,000. A 2002 report estimated there were just 5,000 to 12,000 Blue Whales worldwide located in five or more groups. The Blue Whale population is generally accepted to have increased in recent years.

Source: Extreme Science, Wikipedia, New South Wales Government, The IUCN Red List

Obese Kids

#health - Up to 25 percent of all children in the United Kingdom will be obese by the year 2050, according to the British Heart Foundation (BHF). This will make it much more likely that children will become obese adults, and run a far greater risk of developing coronary heart disease, the UK’s biggest killer.

The BHF is urging the Government to take action, in particular to bring in tighter regulations in the marketing of ‘junk food’ to children.

Source: The Guardian, Food4Thought

2008 US Election Turnout

#politics - 2008's US presidential election saw the highest voter turnout since 1960, according to the Center for the Study of the American Electorate at American University.

According to the Center's research, African-American turnout was a major factor in turnout increase, while college-educated and college-resident youth turnout also increased and played a major role in Barack Obama’s victory.Turnout increased most in the South, where Obama made inroads thanks to a huge black turnout, of any region.

However, the surge in election turnout was an 'Obama phenomenon' and does not necessarily mean higher political engagement.

Source: Boston.com, Center for the Study of the American Electorate

Less Anemic

#health - 7 percent of women and 4 percent of children in the USA have anemia, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Results from a large, nationally representative trial, the National Health and Nutritional Examination Surveys (NHANES), indicate that anemia rates are in decline.

Results of the study were published in the December 2008 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Anemia is a condition in which there's a lower-than-normal number of red blood cells in the blood. Symptoms can include fatigue, chest pain and shortness of breath.

Source: Washington Post, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Richest Under 30

#music - R&B singer Beyonce Knowles has been named as the richest star under 30 - with an estimated $80 million (GBP55 million) in the bank.

The 27 year old star, topped the list of wealthy young celebrities compiled by Forbes magazine, just weeks after Knowles and her husband Jay-Z were named Hollywood's richest couple by the publication.

Pop superstar Justin Timberlake, 27, came second with earnings of $43 million (GBP30 million), followed closely by U.S. basketball player Kobe Bryant with $39 million (GBP26.8 million).

The top ten richest stars under 30 is as follows:

1. Beyonce Knowles - $80 million (GBP55 million)
2. Justin Timberlake - $43 million (GBP30 million)
3. Kobe Bryant - $39 million (GBP26.8 million)
4. LeBron James - $38 million (GBP26.1 million)
5. Roger Federer - $35.2 million (GBP24.1 million)
6. Keira Knightley - $32.2 million (GBP22.03 million)
7. Maria Sharapova - $26.1 million (GBP17.9 million)
8. Daniel Radcliffe - $25.1 million (GBP17.2 million)
9. Miley Cyrus - $25.1 million (GBP17.2 million)
10. Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen - $15 million (GBP10.3 million).

Source: Contact Music

Beedle

#books - The Tales of Beedle the Bard sold 367,625 copies in the first three days after publication on December 4, making it the UK's fastest-selling book of the year.

JK Rowling's latest Harry Potter spin-off sold almost five times as many copies in its first few days after publication as its nearest rival, Guinness World Records 2008, which sold 73,000 over the same time period, according to market analysts Nielsen BookScan.

The success of the 109-page collection of short stories, which Rowling did not originally intend for publication, underlines the powerful hold she continues to exert over readers – and the book industry. The Tales of Beedle the Bard is mentioned in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Source: The Telegraph

Largest Global Advertiser

#advertising - Procter & Gamble Co. ranked as the top advertiser in 2007, having spent almost $9.4 billion worldwide.

The maker of Tide, Olay and Pampers outspent Unilever, the second-highest advertiser, by almost two-to-one. Unilever spent $5.2 billion, according to a special publication by Advertising Age that ranks global marketers.

Just $3.7 billion of P&G’s ad budget is spent in U.S., according to AdAge, while $3.1 billion is spent in Europe.

L’Oreal ranked as the third-largest advertiser, with $3.4 billion, followed by General Motors, with $3.3 billion.

Source: Business Courier, AdAge

Gingerbread

#charity - More than 100 houses make up the world's largest Gingerbread Village, built in the lobby of the Prescott Resort in Prescott, Arizona, USA.

The annual Whimsical Village helps raise funds for Yavapai Big Brothers Big Sisters, which received donations last year via 'lot sales' and gingerbread men cookie decorating.

Source: The Prescott Resort

World Hunger

#food - The number of undernourished people in the world rose to 963 million in 2008, compared to 923 million in 2007 according to preliminary estimates published by FAO in December 2008. 40 million people have been pushed into hunger in 2008 primarily due to higher food prices and the ongoing financial and economic crisis could tip even more people into hunger and poverty during 2009.

Prices of major cereals have fallen by over 50 percent from their peaks earlier in 2008 but they remain high compared to previous years. With prices for seeds and fertilizers (and other inputs) more than doubling since 2006, poor farmers could not increase production. As a result, cereal production in developed countries is likely to rise by at least 10 percent in 2008. The increase in developing countries may not exceed even one percent.

The vast majority of the world's undernourished people - 907 million - live in developing countries, according to the 2007 data reported by the State of Food Insecurity in the World. Of these, 65 percent live in only seven countries: India, China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan and Ethiopia. In sub-Saharan Africa, one in three people - or 236 million (2007) - are chronically hungry, the highest proportion of undernourished people in the total population.

Source: Food & Agriculture Organisation

Mexico Mob Hits

#crime - Mexico saw 5,000 violent homicides during 2008.

Violence in early December 2008 resulted in 35 violent deaths in 24 hours, which took the number of deaths related to organized crime to more than five thousand. The violent murder rate in Mexico currently exceeds one death per hour.

From 22 October to 2 December 2008, ninety law enforcement persons have been murdered in Mexico. There have now been 7,882 assassinations linked to organized crime since President Calderon took office in December 2006.

Source: Right Side News

1,000 Cuppas A Day

#food - Kurush Bharucha tastes up to 1,000 cups of tea a day at Lipton's factory in the Jebel Ali Free Zone, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Beginning his career in Kolkata, India, Bharucha has travelled the world to sample local harvest ands has worked for the Lipton tea brand for the past 23 years. Bharucha has memorised the flavours of almost every tea in the world. With one swirl around his super-sensitive taste buds, he can tell which country the tea originated from and which time of year it was harvested.

Source: Khaleej Times

North Korean Food Aid

#food - Nearly 40 percent of North Korea's population will need food assistance in 2009, according to United Nations food agencies, largely because of critical shortages of fertilizer and fuel.

The World Food Program and the Food and Agriculture Organization said food production was down again for the third year running, in a joint report that said 8.7 million people out of North Korean's total population of 23 million — or 38 percent — will need food assistance in the coming year.

Food assistance will be needed until the next harvest, in October 2009, the report by the two Rome-based U.N. agencies predicted.

The impoverished communist country has relied on foreign assistance to feed its people since natural disasters and mismanagement devastated its economy in the mid-1990s.

Source: Associated Press, World Food Program, Food & Agriculture Organisation

Viva La Vida

#music - Coldplay's “Viva La Vida” was listened to more than three million times by hundreds of thousands of Last.fm members during 2008 taking it to number one on the music streaming site's annual music survey.

“Viva La Vida”, which was only released in May 2008, was followed by Coldplay's "Violet Hill" in second place, whilst the album that both songs came from, "All His Friends", was the most listened to album amongst Last.fm's online membership. Last.fm recorded the plays of 650 songs every second of 2008 and 'scrobbled' the site's 25 million users to monitor their listening habits.

Source: Last.fm, CNET UK

Rarest Wolf

#animals - Less than 500 of the world's rarest wolves live on a handful of mountains in Ethiopia and are on the brink of extinction.

In its stronghold in the Bale Mountains National Park the Ethiopian wolf lives in close contact with the Oromo people, which places the wolf at great risk of catching the rabies virus from the dogs the Oromo use to herd livestock. A team of Oxford University and Ethiopian conservationists are currently battling to save the Ethiopian wolf from a rabies outbreak by creating a ‘barrier’ of vaccinated wolf packs.

Source: Science Daily

Santa Physics

#xmas - Santa would have to travel at 650 miles per second, visiting some 822.6 homes per second in order to complete his global Christmas gift run, according to calculations by physcisists.

Assuming that Santa Claus exists and that his reindeer and sleigh can actually fly, physcisists calculated that he would have to visit 91.8 million homes delivering presents to up to 378 million Christian children worldwide. By travelling East to West, Santa could take advantage of different time zones and thereby give himself 31 hours to deliver 321,200 tonnes of Christmas gifts. Despite travelling at 3,000 times the speed of sound, Santa would be on a tight schedule and have just 1/1000th of a second to park, slip down the chimney, fill the kids Christmas stockings, drink his glass of milk, eat his complimentary Christmas snack and get back in his sleigh.

Source: Spy Magazine, Snopes.com

Russian Panama Journey

#navy - A Russian warship used the Panama Canal on Friday 5 December 2008 for the first time since World War II, after taking part in joint Russian-Venezuelan maneuvers.

The anti-submarine ship "Admiral Chabanenko" entered the canal at the Caribbean port city of Colon late on 5th December evening and docked at the former US naval base of Rodman in Panama's capital on Saturday afternoon. It was the first time a Russian warship had entered the canal since 1944, when the waterway was under US control and Russia and the United States were allied in the anti-Nazi coalition.

The 169-meter (554-foot) Admiral Chabanenko, which carries out operations against piracy and international terrorism, belongs to Russia's Northern Fleet.

Deepest Oil Well

#oil - Shell Oil Company has drilled a subsea well 9,356 feet (1.77 miles) below the water’s surface in the Gulf of Mexico setting a world water depth record.

Located at the Perdido Development approximately 200 miles from Houston, the oil well is 35 percent deeper than the previous oil well record of 6,950 feet, also set by Shell at the Gulf of Mexico’s Fourier field. At Perdido, Shell intends to drill an even deeper well at the Tobago field at 9,627 feet, which will surpass its current world record.

The Perdido Development drill 35 wells (22 direct vertical access and 13 remote) in the Great White, Tobago and Silvertip fields located in Alaminos Canyon. Moored in about 8,000 feet of water, the drilling and production facility will be the deepest in the world. Nine polyester mooring lines averaging more than two miles in length now hold the spar in place. The floating structure will weigh 50,000-tons and be nearly as tall as the Eiffel Tower when fully operational.

Sources: Oil Voice

Malnutrition

#health - 300,000 children suffer from acute malnutrition annually in Somalia, according to UNICEF. Somalia has the highest levels of malnutrition in the world.

Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) rates of more than 20 percent have been reported, with the figure rising to 28 percent in some areas. GAM rates of 30 percent indicate a famine situation.

Although there are 220 therapeutic feeding centres across the country, more than 70 percent of the population lacks reliable access to safe water.

Source: UNICEF

Angelina

#entertainment - Oscar winner Angelina Jolie is 2008's highest paid actress, taking home a pay package of $15-20-million per movie, according to the annual rankings released by The Hollywood Reporter.

As usual, topping the trade papers' 17th Annual Power 100 list, Oprah Winfrey is easily entertainment industry's most influential woman. Claiming the No. 2 spot with $15 million for 'Duplicity' scheduled for a 2009 release, Oscar winner Julia Roberts, 41, returns after a long hiatus from the screen.

Reese Witherspoon, 32, last year's No. 1 and who won an Oscar for her role in 'Walk the Line', dropped to No. 3, earning $14-million for 'Four Christmases', the comedy that opened last week.

Source: Top News

Times Square LEDs

#advertising - New York's Time Square video screen uses 12 million LEDs (light-emitting diodes). The 16,000 sq ft. electronic billboard wraps around three sides of New York City's One Times Square building, stretches to a height of 340 ft and takes up about as much space as 60 regular-sized billboards.

Source: Design News

Christmas Trees

#xmas - 31.3 million real Christmas trees were sold in the USA in 2007 versus 17.4 million artificial trees, according to the National Christmas Tree Association.

The US$2.5 billion US Christmas tree industry is expected to sell roughly 48 million real and fake trees in 2008. Over 300,000 trees are sold via the Internet or mail order catalogs, about 21 percent of Christmas trees sold were from chain stores, 15 percent by non-profit groups, 13 percent from retail lots and 35 percent from choose and cut farms.

Christmas trees have been sold commercially in the United States since about 1850.

Source: National Christmas Tree Association

Rudolph

#xmas - "Rudolph," a show that debuted in 1964, was US fourth-rated TV program during the week it aired in December 2007. It finished behind only "CSI," "Grey's Anatomy" and "60 Minutes." The same month "A Charlie Brown Christmas," penned by the late Charles Schulz in 1965, was No. 1 in its time slot and proved to be the highest-rated broadcast of the year among children age 2-11.

TV classics of Christmas past still exert a powerful spell.

Source: Mercury News

Backstroke

#sports - American swimmer Randall Bal swam 50 metres backstroke in 24.33 seconds breaking the men's world record at a meeting in Eindhoven on Saturday 6 December 2008.

The previous world record was set by Briton Liam Tancock at 24.47seconds set at the British Olympic trials in April 2008.

Source: AFP

Turkeys

#food - More than 45 million turkeys are cooked and eaten in the USA at Thanksgiving, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture: that's nearly two whole turkeys on every table in America.

American per capita consumption of turkeys has soared from 8.3 pounds in 1975 to 18.5 pounds in 1997. Ten years later, the number has dropped slightly in 2007 to 17.5 pounds.

In 2007, more than 260 million turkeys were raised with an average liveweight per bird of 28 pounds with nearly 6 billion pounds of turkey processed. By contrast, in 1970, only 105 million birds were raised with an average liveweight of 17 pounds and 1.5 billion pounds processed.

Source: New York Times, US Department of Agriculture

Highest Rainfall

#weather - Mount Waiʻaleʻalee on the Hawaiian island of Kauaʻi receives an average annual rainfall of 11,684 milimeters (460 inches), making it the most rainy place on the planet.

Mount Waiʻaleʻalee is followed by Mawsynram, in Meghalaya, India, which has an average yearly rainfall of 11,873 mm (467 in) and nearby Cherrapunji which has an average of 11,430 mm (450 in).

Source: Wikipedia

Jewel Thieves

#crime - A band of armed jewel thieves stole diamonds, rings and watches valued at more than $100 million from a Harry Winston boutique in the heart of the Paris's "golden triangle" of luxury shops near the Champs-Élysées.

France’s costliest jewelry theft occurred Thursday 4 December 2008 afternoon, but was not reported until Friday. The robbers struck in the holiday season, when jewelry stocks are plentiful.

It was the second time in 14 months that the Winston boutique on Avenue Montaigne had been robbed, and the theft followed by little more than a week one at Cartier in Paris, where a veiled woman posing as a tourist from Qatar switched a fake for the real gem in a diamond ring valued at $800,000.

Source: New York Times

Firearms

#guns - 8.6 million Americans applied for the right to buy a firearm in 2007. Although gun ownership has been falling since 1977, about 97 million Americans legally own an estimated 200 million guns.

Source: Slate

US Unemployment

#jobs - Employers in the United States cut 533,000 jobs in November 2008, raising unemployment to 6.7 percent, compared with 4.7 percent a year earlier.

Not since December 1974, toward the end of a severe recession, have so many jobs disappeared in a single month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 1.9 million jobs have been lost since the start of the recession at the end of 2007.

If those too discouraged to look for work any longer or those working fewer hours than they would like are added to the roster of the unemployed, then the rate would hit a record 12.5 percent in November.

Source: New York Times, Bureau of Labor Statistics

Digital Music

#music - Digital music will make up 41 percent of music sales by 2013 as compact discs (CDs) continue their decline, claims a December 2008 report from Jupiter Research.

The Jupiter survey predicts that overall, the music market will shrink by about 0.8% by 2013, to $9.8 billion in sales, with the percentage of sales of "offline physical format" forms (CDs, albums, etc.) plummeting from a 64% share of sales down to 40%. That's a combined annual growth rate (CAGR) of -8.7% -- a worse number than Jupiter predicted last time they looked at the market (-7.1%).

The percentage of sales accounted for by digital-music formats will reach 41% by 2013, the first year, it is thought, where music in digital-file form will outsell physical formats like CDs.
Then as now, downloads from services such as iTunes, Amazon, and their ilk will lead the digital charge -- in fact, downloads will be a bigger deal than even by then, with projected sales of $3.27 billion. That's up from a projected $1.496 billion in 2007, for a very healthy CAGR of 24%.

Source: Beta News, Jupiter Research

Overweight Britain

#health - 90 per cent of adults in the United Kingdom will be obese within the next 50 years, according to government statistics.

Around 9,000 people now die prematurely of obesity-related conditions each year and a third of 11- and 12-year-olds are overweight. If this trend continues, by 2050 nine out of 10 adults and two thirds of all children will be overweight or obese. A study by research agency Foresight in 2007 predicted that levels of obesity in men would rise to 60 per cent and women 50 per cent by 2050.

The cost to the country in health and social provision is likely to hit £50 billion a year and doctors say being severely overweight can cut 11 years off a lifespan.

Source: The Daily Telegraph

California Real-estate

#environment - Around $2.5 trillion of California's real-estate value is at risk from climate change, according to a study conducted at the University of California Berkeley.

The scale of climate risk over the coming decades dwarfs today's financial crisis and will long outlive it, according to Next 10, the non-profit group that sponsored the research. The study stated that California has about $4 trillion in real estate assets, of which $2.5 trillion would be at risk from wildfire, rising sea level and extreme weather. The losses would come in the form of direct costs such as firefighting and indirect expenses for public health, insurance and agricultural losses.

Source: UPI

Physical Activity

#health - An estimated 65 percent of people in the United States met the 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, by taking 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise activity or 75 minutes of vigorous activity per week.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, issued minimum recommended aerobic physical activity guidelines in October 2008, in an effort to promote the substantial health benefits of exercise for adults. In addition, muscle-strengthening exercises are recommended at least twice a week.

The 2010 guidelines call for adults to do at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity activity five days per week, or 20 minutes of vigorous activity three days a week.

32.2% of adults suffer from obesity (that’s almost 90 million), while another 30% of Americans are simply overweight. The US government has a goal to reduce the obesity rate to less than 15% for United States adults.

Source: USNews

Amazon Destruction

#environment - The Amazon, the world’s largest rainforest, lost 11,968 square kilometers (4,600 square miles) in the 12 months through July 2008, an area about 10 times as large as New York City. The loss compares with 11,532 square kilometers in the same period a year earlier.

The Amazon Basin encompasses seven million square kilometers (1.7 billion acres), of which five and a half million square kilometers (1.4 billion acres) are covered by the Amazon Rainforest.

Between 1991 and 2000, the total area of forest lost in the Amazon rose from 415,000 to 587,000 km² (an area larger than France), with most of the lost forest becoming pasture for cattle. The pace of deforestation had been falling since it reached a nine-year high of 27,379 square kilometers in 2004. It accelerated in the end of 2007 and beginning of 2008 as global commodity prices surged.

At the current rate of deforestation, the Amazon Rainforest will be reduced by 40% in two decades.

Source: Bloomberg, Brazilian National Institute of Space Research , Wikipedia

Space Missions

#space - European governments pledged almost US$13 billion for future space missions in November 2008, funding an ambitious plan for space exploration, including the ExoMars mission to place a robotic vehicle on Mars.

The 18 member states of the European Space Agency agreed a number of space projects including satellites to monitor climate change, a long list of experiments for the International Space Station and updates to the Ariane rocket, which carries European payloads into space.

The $1.5 billion ExoMars project is set to blast off in 2016, carrying a landing rover to Mars which will drill two meters into the planet's surface to take soil samples.

Source: Voice of America

Paper Cups

#environment - The world consumes 216 billion paper cups per year, 60 per cent of which are consumed by North America. The 130 billion paper cups used in North America require about 50 million trees to be felled and made into pulp for paper, not to mention requiring 33 billion gallons of water in the manufacturing process.

The Seattle-based Starbucks coffee shop chain alone uses more than 1.5 billion cups per year, and the plastic lining of the cups prevents them from being recyclable (in most cases), although 10% of the Starbucks cups are made from recycled material.

Source: Various sources

Measles Deaths

Measles deaths worldwide have fallen by 74 percent, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), due to aggressive efforts to vaccinate young children against measles.

Global health officials say that from 2000 through 2007, the number of measles deaths worldwide dropped from 750,000 to 197,000. In the Eastern Mediterranean, the number of deaths due to measles fell by 90 percent from 96,000 to 10,000 during the same period.

The World Health Organization, or WHO, has set a goal of cutting measles deaths overall by 90 percent by the end of the decade. Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and the Sudan have already achieved that goal, while other countries are not far behind. However, 500 children per day die of the disease, which is easily prevented through immunizations. The vast majority of measles deaths occur in children under the age of five.

Source: WHO, Voice of America

Brazilian Ethanol

Brazilian ethanol production is expected to grow 19 percent this year to 7.238 billion gallons, with a potential increase in exports of 23 percent to 1.1 billion gallons, according to the Brazilian agriculture ministry.

58 percent of a projected 547.2 million tons of Brazilian sugar cane will be converted to ethanol in 2008, compared with 56 percent of the sugar cane crop in 2007, and 51 percent in 2006.

Brazil has created what many consider the world's first sustainable biofuel economy. The country now has about 5 million flex fuel cars on the roads, a number is expected to double to 10 million by 2010 according to the government. Ethanol now contributes 15 per cent of the country's energy mix and 45 per cent of the fuel used in the transport sector. Fuel sold at petrol pumps is required to carry 20 to 25 per cent ethanol content. Ethanol fuel blends are also made available at a lower cost than traditional gasoline.

Source: Biofuels Digest

Apple iPhone

Apple’s iPhone showed a 327.5 percent market share gain in worldwide smartphone sales for the third-quarter of 2008, according to Gartner.

In North America, Apple is in second place behind Blackberry manufacturer Research In Motion with 25.4 percent market share. Apple also captured second place in the European market behind Nokia with a 15.6 percent market share.

Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs announced the first iPhone at MacWorld in January 2007.

Source: Macworld, Gartner Inc.

Video games

97 percent of American youth play video games, according to a survey by Pew Internet & American Life Project.

The survey found that while young Americans don’t necessarily play the same thing, nearly all of them — girls included — play video games of one kind or another. Nearly two-thirds play video games to socialize face-to-face with friends and family, while just over a quarter said they play with Internet friends.

Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project

AIDS

More than 25 million people have died of AIDS since 1981 and there are now 33.2 million people living with HIV, including 2.5 million children. Some 2.5 million people became newly infected with the virus during 2007. Around half of all people who become infected with HIV do so before they are 25 and are killed by AIDS before they are 35.

Around 95% of people with HIV/AIDS live in developing nations including an estimated 22 million people living with HIV/AIDS in Africa. An estimated 1.7 million people in sub-Saharan Africa became newly infected in 2007.

Source: UNAIDS, AVERT

Tigers

During the past century, wild tiger numbers have plunged from more than 100,000 to about 4,000 animals and tigers occupy only 7 percent of their historic range. Tigers have already disappeared from Central Asia, Java and Bali in Indonesia, and most of China.

Source: Global Tiger Initiative

Nanotech

The medical nanotechnology market is expected to reach US$1 trillion by 2015, according to the U.S. National Science Foundation, making it one of the fastest-growing industries in history.

Nanotechnology refers to a field whose theme is the control of matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Generally nanotechnology deals with structures 100 nanometers or smaller, and involves developing materials or devices within that size. One nanometer (nm) is one billionth, or 10-9, of a meter.

Source: U.S. National Science Foundation, Wikipedia

Ford's Green Plans

Ford Motor Company intends to invest $14 billion on fuel-efficient technologies by the end of 2015 and aims to achieve a 36% improvement in fuel economy for its entire fleet by the 2015 model year.

Ford has a plan to electrify its fleet of vehicles, including plans to offer an all-electric van-type vehicle in 2010 for use in commercial fleets, complemented by a battery-powered sedan in 2011. By 2012, the company will bring a family of hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and battery electric vehicles to market.

Source: Sustainablebusiness.com

Sterling Value

The British pound sterling fell to 0.8675 pounds against the euro on Thursday 4 December 2008, its lowest level since the single European currency was introduced in 1999.

The pound has been languishing for much of 2008 amid mounting fears about the state of the British economy. Sterling's slump was followed by the Bank of England cutting its benchmark rate to 2 percent, the lowest level since 1951.


Source: Bloomberg, Associated Press

Inflatable Breasts

More than 130,000 inflatable breasts were lost at sea en route to Australia from China this month.

The shipment, valued at about US$200,000, was destined for men's magazine Ralph, which was planning to include the products as a free gift with its January issue. The container apparently left docks in Beijing, but turned up empty in Sydney two weeks later.

Source: News.com.au

Hajj Pilgrimage

More than 2.5 million Muslim pilgrims are expected to travel to Mecca (Makkah) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in December 2008. The Hajj is the largest annual pilgrimage in the world and occurs from the 8th to 12th day of Dhu al-Hijjah, the 12th month of the Islamic lunar calendar.

An estimated 2.3 million pilgrims made the Hajj in 2007. Saudi embassies and consulates around the world granted visas to 1,575,214 Hajj pilgrims including 13,742 visas for American's going on the Hajj. Indonesian pilgrims topped the list for 2007 with 214,886 Saudi visas being granted.

Sources: Saudi Embassy (Washington DC, USA), Wikipedia,

PC Sales

Personal computer (PC) shipments are expected to rise just 3.8 percent in 2009 to 313.9 million units worldwide, down from 12.4 percent growth and 302.3 million units in 2008 according to global research firm IDC.

IDC expects global PC sales to fall 5.3 percent next year to $267 billion. It had previously forecast a 4.5 percent increase.

The research house had previously forecast unit shipment growth of 13.7 percent and sales revenue increase of 4.5 percent. IDC revised its forecast downwards due to the global economic downturn.

Source: Reuters, IDC

Greenhouse gases

US greenhouse gas emissions rose 1.4 percent in 2007 or about 16.7 percent above 1990 levels, equal to 7.282 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.

The USA is the world's top greenhouse gas polluter after China.

Source: Reuters, US Federal Energy Information Administration