Every December we round up a few factoids—zingers—from the week to throw out at the holiday parties. Here goes:
The movie Avatar cost in the
neighborhood of $300 million and may be the most expensive film ever made
Complete
with blue people who speak a language made up specifically for the film, Avatar
is a 3D, digital
extravaganza about a paralyzed soldier who escapes to a fantastical planet
called Pandora (the blue people have tails). The movie took four years to
produce and new cameras were
invented to film it. Whose baby is this? James Cameron’s—director of the highest
grossing film ever, Titanic. So, he has a track record! The film launches Dec.
18 and so far the early reviews
are good.
Twenty-one million people are “underbanked”
Under what?
Underbanked, says
the FDIC, which estimates that about 21 million people who don’t have bank
accounts use alternative forms of banking, say a check cashing service or a
payday loan shop, all which take hefty fees. About 9 million don’t have bank
accounts at all, with minorities and low-income people making up the majority
of these groups. The FDIC works with banks to try to get some of these folks
banking services.
Casual sex is not so damaging on the
psyche
Young,
unattached adults engaging in casual sex aren’t at “increased risk for harmful
psychological outcome compared to those in more committed relationships.”
That’s according to a new study publishes in a health journal from the Guttmacher
Institute. The paper apparently refutes abstinence only teachings that warn
that casual sex is hard emotionally, and says the focus should be on safe sex. The
Onion, however, claims it’s only rewarding “for
the first few decades.”
Five women accepted the Nobel Peace
Prize in
Since 1901,
822 Nobel prizes have been awarded and just 40 women have won during that time—five
of them this year. One of them, American Elinor Ostrom, was the first woman
to win the prize for economics.
