Most Americans don’t answer cellphone calls from unknown numbers
Americans just aren’t picking up the phone much anymore. Eight-in-ten Americans say they don’t generally answer their cellphone when an unknown number calls. Only 19% of U.S. adults say they generally answer the phone for an unknown number. And though much has been made of younger adults’ distaste for phone conversations, the survey finds that Americans ages 18 to 29 are more likely to take calls from unknown numbers than those in older age groups. More...
4 of the 20 striking findings from 2020
A) For the first time since at least the Great Depression, a majority of young adults in the U.S. were living with their parents this year. Millions of Americans, especially young adults, moved in with family members as the coronavirus spread.
B) And, an overwhelming majority of U.S. adults (86%) say there is some kind of lesson or set of lessons for mankind to learn from the coronavirus outbreak, and about a third (35%) say these lessons were sent by God.
C) Also, in several countries, the share of people with a favorable view of the U.S. fell in 2020 to its lowest point on record. America’s image abroad declined considerably after Trump took office in 2017, but there was further erosion in 2020 amid widespread criticism of the country’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak.
D) And this: Around half of Americans (49%) say the Bible should have a great deal or some influence on the laws of the U.S., including 28% who say it should take precedence when it conflicts with the will of the people. The U.S. Constitution does not mention the Bible, God, Jesus or Christianity, and the First Amendment clarifies that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” Still, some scholars have argued that the Bible heavily influenced America’s founders. More…
3 of the 19 striking findings from 2019
A) The most active 10% of adult Twitter users in the U.S. produce 80% of all tweets sent by these users. In that study, 97% of tweets that were created by U.S. adults and mentioned national politics came from just 10% of users.
B) And this: A single person watching YouTube videos for eight hours a day with no breaks or days off would need more than 16 years to watch all the content posted by just the most popular channels on the platform during a single week. These popular channels – defined as those with at least 250,000 subscribers – posted nearly a quarter-million videos in the first seven days of 2019, totaling 48,486 hours of content. The average video on these channels was roughly 12 minutes long and received 58,358 views during its first week on the site. Altogether, these videos were viewed over 14.2 billion times in their first seven days.
C) Also: A majority of Americans do not think it is possible to go about daily life without corporate and government entities collecting information about them. Americans widely believe at least some of their online and offline activities are being tracked and monitored by companies and the government. It is such a common condition of modern life, in fact, that roughly six-in-ten U.S. adults say they don’t think it is possible to go through daily life without having data collected about them by companies (62% say this) or the government (63%). More…
DID YOU KNOW trees can communicate?
Trees talk. Their roots are connected through an underground network of fungi, nicknamed the “Wood Wide Web,” that allows them to share resources with each other. They “talk” by transmitting nutrients to one another through the fungi. For instance, a mother tree, or oldest and strongest tree in the forest, will share some of her sugars with smaller, nearby trees.
Did you know you can use willow bark for pain relief instead of aspirin?
The secret to pain relief may be in your backyard. For centuries, willow bark has been used as an alternative to aspirin. The active ingredient in the bark, salicyl, turns to salicylic acid and is more gentle on the stomach than over-the-counter aspirin. But before you throw out all of your aspirin, here’s 7 household aspirin uses you never knew about.
Did you know people rarely used to smile in photos?
Why do people smile when they have their photo taken? Smiling in photos is said to have originated from a Kodak advertising scheme that focused on capturing moments of happiness with the product. Since then, it’s been the norm to grin into the camera. A study comparing yearbook photos from 1905 to 2005 showed an increase of lip curvature over time. Learn more about why we started smiling—and saying “cheese”—in photos.
Did you know 40 percent of human jobs could be replaced by AI in the future
In about 20 years, the future could look eerily similar to Wall-E. Artificial intelligence expert Kai-Fu Lee said that 40 percent of human jobs could be replaced by equally capable robots. And drivers might be affected the most. Luckily, there are plenty of cool new jobs you could have in the future.
Did you know lions are identifiable through their whisker patterns?
Like humans and fingerprints, each lion has a whisker pattern unique to their nose, according to the New York Times. Back in the late ’60s, researchers conducted a whisker hole identification method that involved overlapping photographs of lions’ noses with a standard grid.
