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.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
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
-
August 31 editorial cartoonsCartoons Sunday’s political cartoons include FEMA's new scheme, Gavin Newsom's antics, and a clue in the Epstein files
-
Disarming Hezbollah: Lebanon's risky missionTalking Point Iran-backed militia has brought 'nothing but war, division and misery', but rooting them out for good is a daunting and dangerous task
-
Woof! Britain's love affair with dogsThe Explainer The UK's canine population is booming. What does that mean for man's best friend?
-
The bottom linefeature Working families continue to struggle; The least-trusted industries; The bestselling vehicle; Mobil device use triples; Global unemployment among the young
-
The bottom line
feature The cost of e-filing; Dipping into nest eggs early; What Americans are drinking; Planning for death; How tax refunds are spent
-
The bottom line
feature Building bigger houses; And tuition at OSU is?; Christmas at McDonald's; Self-gifting at Christmas; Lloyd’s prepares for Hurricane Sandy claims; Google's billions
-
The bottom line
feature Good results for the third quarter; Compensation at financial firms hits a high; Three cities with recovering economies; Good year for car sales; Broadway's best performance ever; Tax bite is less in 2010 than in 1980
-
The bottom line
feature Airlines cut domestic flights; Income up in small cities and rural areas; Bond and Lincoln lift box office earnings; Don't be fooled by Black Friday; The high toll of identity theft
-
The bottom line
feature The gender pay gap; U.S. economic growth; Parents who argue about money; Online subscriptions rise
-
The bottom line
feature Can the U.S. keep up?; Airlines spend billions on runway taxiing; Americans exaggerate their working hours; The Dow Jones's 67.9 percent gain; Success and summer babies
-
The bottom line
feature Consumer confidence jumps; Wall Street cuts jobs, raises pay; Goldman Sachs's muppet hunt; Desktop web searches decline; Pizza Hut scraps debate freebie