Sales of Jackson's albums top the charts
In the week following Michael Jackson’s death, the three top-selling albums in the U.S. were all his. In total, 422,000 copies of Jackson’s albums sold in the week, more than 40 times the previous week’s figure.
The New York Times
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U.S. sees steep decline in driving
Due to the recession and rising gas prices, the U.S. is in the middle of the longest and steepest decline in driving since the invention of the automobile. The 12-month total has plummeted by 123 billion miles from its peak in 2007, or more than 4 percent. That’s the equivalent of taking some 10 million drivers off the road.
USA Today
Towns, cities cancel July 4 fireworks
From Ashtabula, Ohio, to San Jose, Calif., dozens of towns and cities across the country canceled their traditional fireworks displays this July 4 due to budget woes.
Associated Press
Demand for porn videos strains Japan's infrastructure
Surging demand from mobile phone users for pornographic videos, films, and photos is straining Japan’s wireless Internet infrastructure. With millions of Japanese downloading content from more than 1,000 porn merchants, mobile Internet providers might have to ration downloads during peak periods.
Bloomberg.com
Graduates veer away from pediatrics and family medicine
Since 1997, the number of medical school graduates going into pediatrics or family medicine has dropped by 50 percent. New doctors are opting instead for specialties such as orthopedic surgery, which pays an average of $480,000 a year, instead of pediatrics, which pays $171,000.
The Dallas Morning News
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Smartphone collisions, and morefeature Fifty-three percent of all adult mobile-phone owners have been banged into because someone was peering at their smartphone.
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Partisan commencement speeches?, and more
feature No Republican or conservative has been invited to make the commencement speech this year at any of the 50 top U.S. liberal arts colleges.
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Food stamp benefits soar, and more
feature The government spent $74.6 billion on food stamp benefits last year, up from $30.4 billion in 2007.
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Prime-time TV gets racier, and more
feature The networks’ new trick is to show fully naked characters with their breasts, buttocks, and/or genitals pixelated.
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A warm start to the year, and more
feature The U.S. just experienced the warmest start to a year since records began, in 1895.
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Potter films rake in billions, and more
feature The Harry Potter movie series has earned $6.37 billion at the box office over the past decade.
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Jersey Shore captures 8.45 million, and more
feature The season premiere of MTV’s Jersey Shore was viewed by 8.45 million people, more than the average audiences of network news broadcasts on ABC and CBS.
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Wal-Mart's jump in midnight sales, and more
feature Wal-Mart says its stores see a jump in midnight sales on the first of each month, when cash-strapped shoppers receive their monthly government benefits.