DON'T WORK - SEE THE WORLD!

The first toilet flush in a big screen American movie: Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" (1965)

Contrary to popular belief, Eskimos and Inuits do not have more words for "snow" than English speakers

Percent of the adult resident population in Washington, DC that is functionally illiterate: 36%

On an average day in the American workforce:
2 workers are fatally shot
3 fall to their deaths
1 is killed by a motor vehicle
1 is electrocuted

In an average year 30 American workers die from heat stroke and another 30 are killed by carbon monoxide

Globally, work kills more civilians than war with about 5,000 workers dying each day (the equivalent of 3 deaths per minute) mostly due to unsafe working conditions

A positive result from a HIV test is false nearly 50% of the time for men in low risk groups and is even less reliable for women in low risk groups

After extensive market research that cost the auto industry millions of dollars, analysis into their customers resulted in the following conclusions published for auto dealers and distributed last year:
"SUV owners tend to be people who are insecure and vain. They are frequently nervous about their marriages and uncomfortable with parenthood. They often lack confidence in their driving skills. Above all, they are self-centered and self-absorbed, with little interest in their neighbors or communities. They are more restless, more sybaritic, and less social than most Americans. They tend to like fine restaurants more than off-road driving, seldom go to church, and have limited interest in helping others."

The caffeine extracted from coffee beans to make decaf coffee is sold to drug and soft drink manufacturers

On average, each square mile of the earth has the same number of insects living within its parameters as there are people inhabiting the entire planet (6.6 billion)

Ant trails always fork at 60 degree angles

The average weekly pay of financial sector jobs in Manhattan is $8,300 -- the 280,000 financial sector workers collect more than half of all the wage earnings paid in Manhattan each week even though they account for less than 1 in 6 jobs in the city

The IRS audited 21% more income tax returns in 2006 than in 2005 -- the income group most likely to be audited were taxpayers reporting incomes of less than $25,000 for the year

The first commercial hand-held cellular phone was marketed in 1983 by Motorola

Each year in the U.S. the number of prescriptions that are filled incorrectly: over 20,000

The inside of the earth is spinning faster than the rest of the planet

The average fuel economy of a car sold in 2005 was 6% lower than a car sold in 1987

Incidents of immune system disorders diagnosed in the U.S. has increased 200% in the past 5 years

Percent of movies released each year in the U.S. that are R-rated: 55%

Percent of Americans who do not understand the method for testing a scientific hypothesis for validity: 77%

The United States ranked last among a list of the 163 wealthiest nations when measured according to account balance - the U.S. had the highest deficit (March 2007)

Globally, about 25% of the population will receive a diagnosis of depression in their lifetime (for Americans this rate rises to 53%)

Top 15 countries receiving U.S. foreign aid (note that Israel and Egypt receive 1/3 of all aid, while the total aid these 15 nations combined receive from the U.S. is more than half of all the foreign aid the U.S. distributes... leaving the world's 10 poorest nations to divvy up less than 5% of U.S. foreign aid among them):
Israel... $1,200 billion
Egypt... $$815 billion
Russia... $263 billion
Ukraine... $161.4 billion
India... $156.3 billion
South Africa... $131.9 billion
Peru... $123.9 billion
Bolivia... $121 billion
Haiti... $116 billion
Ethiopia... $108 billion
Turkey... $105.8 billion
Bosnia... $80.6 billion
Bangladesh... $77.8 billion
West Bank/Gaza Strip... $76 billion
Phillipines... $74.9 billion

Economic assistance to the above listed 15 countries includes development assistance that most commonly requires these nations to hire U.S. firms and corporations to complete the development, thereby circulating the "foreign aid" money back into the U.S., as well as international narcotics control from which the U.S. earns about $3,000 billion per year