Info in Bits & Pieces

In 1818, Mary Shelley wrote the famous novel Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus. The book’s premise is that modern science, stripped from the constraints of ethics and nature, will end up creating monsters.

Headliners

10 MILLION AMERICANS
About 3% of the U.S. population has received one of the updated COVID-19 vaccines by Moderna, Pfizer, or Novavax since they were approved in Sept. 2023, according to the Department of Health & Human Services.

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$ 3.5 BILLION
Ford Motor Co. says it’s halting construction of a $3.5 billion electric vehicle battery plant project in Michigan, with links to China.

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News by the Numbers

0.7%
Despite high mortgage rates of 7 to 7.5 percent, U.S. home prices rose by 0.7 percent in August, according to Realtors.com. Some projections expect prices to continue to increase by 0.1% month-over-month.

40%
Four out of every ten teenagers are likely to use artificial intelligence to complete their homework instead of handling their own research and accumulating English and grammar skills, according to a study released by the nonprofit Junior Achievement.

67 PERCENT of workers believe inflation is outpacing their salary or wage growth, according to Bank of America.

75% of the world’s maple syrup comes from Canada.

$ 300 BILLION PER YEAR
Low literacy skills likely cause mistakes that cost the United States about $300 billion annually, according to a report by the World Literacy Foundation.

6.6 BILLION people use smartphones as their primary form of communication and entertainment around the globe.

$ 4.1 BILLION
During the past three fiscal years, $4.1 billion in U.S. taxpayer funds has flowed to LGBT initiatives worldwide.

68 CENTS
The U.S. Postal Services wants to raise the price of first-class mail stamps to 68 cents from 66 cents, effective January 21, 2024.

232 TIMES GREATER
The Chinese regime’s shipbuilding capacity is 232 times greater than that of the United States, according to a leaked U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence briefing slide.

60,000 POUNDS
Commercial freight carrier Union Pacific Corp says a leak in a sealed hopper railcar that was hauling 60,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate pellets most likely caused the chemical to “disappear” during the transit in early April 2023.

Did You Know?

Since 2019, more than 66,000 people have stayed on food stamp rolls despite winning enough money in lotteries to make them ineligible, according to the Foundation for Government Accountability.

Quotes

“One of the big problems we have in our federal government is the addiction to war…We’ve spent $ 8 trillion on wars since 9/11.”
~~~ Robert F. Kennedy Jr., presidential candidate

“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.”
~~~ Thomas Edison