Access to classified information, and more

Access to classified information

More than 4.9 million people—many of them working for private companies—have some level of access to classified U.S. government information. About 1.4 million have access to information classified as “top secret.”

USA Today

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The government's surveillance applications

The federal government made 33,900 surveillance applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court from 1979 through 2012. The court approved all but 11, or 99.97 percent.

The Wall Street Journal

The world's daily bytes

An estimated 2.5 quintillion bytes of new data are created daily. Thanks largely to the proliferation of smartphones and other mobile devices, 90 percent of all the digital data in the world was created within the last two years.

The New York Times

Is America splitting apart?

Either the Republicans or Democrats control both the legislature and the governor’s office in all but 13 states. As a result, blue states are moving to the left on issues such as same-sex marriage, abortion, unions, and taxes, while red states are moving to the right. In effect, America is splitting apart without an actual civil war.

Salon.com

Allowable levels of insects

The average American eats one to two pounds of dead insects and insect parts a year that are contained in such foods as pasta, spinach, broccoli, cereal, rice, and beer. The Food and Drug Administration has allowable levels of insects for various foods; beer, for example, can contain up to 2,500 aphids per 10 grams of hops.

ScientificAmerican.com