The Avengers sets a box-office record
Disney’s The Avengers smashed the U.S. domestic box-office record for an opening weekend last week, hauling in $207.4 million in its first few days in cinemas. The film’s U.S. total comfortably beat the record of $169.2 million set last year by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.
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Coupon redemption increases
More than 3.5 billion coupons for consumer packaged goods—like grocery items and toiletries—were redeemed last year, a 6.1 percent increase over 2010.
The New York Times
Work experience for sons of the 1 percent
According to a study of Canadian workers, 68 percent of the sons of the country’s highest-earning 1 percent have worked at the same firms as their fathers by age 33. That compares with an average of 40 percent for the sons of all workers.
TheAtlantic.com
Public aid for educated Americans rises
Between 2007 and 2010, the number of Americans with master’s degrees who received food stamps or other public aid climbed from nearly 102,000 to more than 290,000. The number of people on assistance with Ph.D.s jumped from about 10,000 to nearly 34,000.
Chronicle of Higher Education
How China dominates the solar panel market
In 2005, imports of solar cells and panels from China to the U.S. totaled $22,000. In 2011, that figure was $2.8 billion. Chinese solar panel manufacturers, who are able to sell their wares at steep discounts thanks to massive subsidies from the Chinese government, now control about 70 percent of the world market for solar panel construction.
Slate.com