According to new estimates released last week by the World Bank, the world’s poorest people are now concentrated most heavily in Sub-Saharan Africa after China’s huge leap in pulling its citizens out of extreme poverty in recent decades.    

4.3 million retail salespeople in the U.S. In the United States, there are 4.3 million retail salespeople.  That is equivalent to the population in the state of Kentucky. And there are 310 prosthodontists — that is, dentists specializing in prosthetic teeth — which is enough to fill, well, a medium-sized lecture hall.      

“Chicago has developed into a city that every investor must watch.” Chicago’s most innovative minds launched 197 digital startups in 2012, up from 193 launched in 2011. 59 companies secured funding of at least $1M in 2012, an increase from 44 companies in 2011. (Infographic)    

A new Pew Internet reporttakes a close look not only at how Americans are using public libraries, but also what sort of services and programming they think libraries should offer — and what they say they would use in the future.    

Airplanes are banned from flying during Azan. The parliament in Iran has banned airplanes from flying in the country during the Azan call to Islamic prayer and allowed to take off only after 30 minutes has passed to give passengers time to fulfill their religious duties, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported on Wednesday.

Brand-name drug prices rise sharply while generic drug prices plummet. Brand-name prescription drug prices are rising faster than the rate of inflation, while the price of generic drugs has plummeted, creating the largest gap so far between the two,according to a report published Wednesday by the pharmacy benefits manager Express Scripts.    

Text messaging on the decline. Around the world, text-message traffic has been declining because Internet-powered alternatives are becoming so widely used. American cell carriers have fought off the decline until now.    

Fewer flights and smaller aircraft leading to many more passengers per flight. Airline travel today mostly stinks.  It is thanks to higher costs, worse service, and truly uncomfortable in-flight conditions. But understanding why life in the air isn’t particularly good takes a little work. Actually, it takes a lot of work because the Department of [...]

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) presents findings from a two-year investigation into the for-profit college industry. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) on Monday unveiled an exhaustive report on a two year investigation of the for-profit higher education industry.  The report on the colleges’ business practices, highlighting schools that charge excessively high tuition and shortchange academic investments in [...]

Young people are also making more use of transit, bikes, and foot power to get around. “Unfortunately for car companies, today’s teens and twenty-somethings don’t seem all that interested in buying a set of wheels. They’re not even particularly keen on driving, ” Jordan Weissmann noted at TheAtlantic.com a couple weeks back.