Fact of the day

Fact of the day

Information is the most powerful weapon.

Fact N° 2288
Less than one-fifth of college presidents believe that the U.S. provides the world's best higher education.
According to a Pew Research Center/Chronicle of Higher Education poll, 19% of college presidents consider U.S. higher education the best in the world, and only 7% believe it will be so in 10 years (although 51% believe the U.S. system is at least among the best). Only 6% of college presidents believe that students are better prepared now than they were a decade ago.
Fact N° 2289
It's not possible to cry in space.
In late May, astronauts Andrew Feustel and Mike Fincke were running power cables outside the International Space Station when Feustel got something in his eye. It was around the five-hour-mark of the pair's spacewalk, and the third spacewalk of shuttle Endeavour's final voyage. But Feustel couldn't dislodge whatever was in his eye, because he was unable to shed tears: "They don't fall off of your eye," explained the astronauts, "they kind of stay there." Feustel was finally able to rub his eye against a strap inside his helmet and continue the spacewalk.
Fact N° 2290
Attractive men don't make the best husbands.
Guys who are rated as the most masculine -- a billboard for a man's good genes -- tend to have more testosterone, and men with higher testosterone levels are 43% more likely to get divorced than men with normal levels, 31% more likely to split because of marital problems and 38% more likely to cheat, according to a study led by psychologist James Roney at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Fact N° 2285
Money only buys happiness if you become richer than your peers.
The simple fact of making more money isn't enough to make people happier. According to researchers at the University of Warwick and Cardiff University, for money to influence their happiness, they have to perceive themselves as having improved in social rank. Their study is titled "Money and Happiness: Rank of Income, Not Income, Affects Life Satisfaction," and its finding that status trumps actual dollar earnings partially explains why people haven't grown significantly happier over the past few decades despite consistent increases in overall prosperity.
Fact N° 2286
Self-control is more important than money or intelligence in determining future success.
Discipline and perseverance were predictors of adulthood success; children who lack self-control are three times more likely to have difficulties (such as criminal or financial problems) in young adulthood, according to a study that tracked 1,000 participants from childhood in the early 1970s onward. The study was conducted in New Zealand and was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Fact N° 2291
Taking something "with a grain of salt" originally referred to curing poisons.
Pliny's Naturalis Historia tells a story of Pompey the Great discovering an antidote for poison that required two dried walnuts, two figs, 20 common rue leaves and a grain of salt. In an a second account of the same incident, the salt isn't actually part of the antidote, merely an additive to assist Pompey in swallowing it. It's also possible that Pliny interpreted "a grain of salt" as a metaphor for skepticism; either way, the phrase didn't enter the English language until many centuries later.
Fact N° 2292
Men and women are equally adept at handling combat stress.
Men and women have essentially the same reactions to their situations, including similar difficulties in adjusting to post-deployment life, according to a study of 600 veterans. The study gauged the effects of combat on male and female soldiers, and was conducted by The Veterans Administration National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder; it was published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology. It tracked stressors ranging from firing a weapon to witnessing combat casualties.

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