First Things First: All Hat Tips again go to Tony Poshek, The Satirical Sourcerer
(formerly known as The Cynical Sorcerer, but it seems only us bloggers got the joke)
Someone needs to learn the definition of “Median”
Sometimes you get a 2-for-1 out of a story. The reporter in this article is discussing the rise in prices of many common items, to show a gloomy outlook on the economy. You’ve heard all this before, but it’s still a decent summary. But then as you get to the very final paragraph, the reporter ruins all credibility with the following statement to show how badly the economy is doing: “Half the nation’s families earn below the median family income of about $56,000.” HALF! Oh no, HALF are below the median!
“Soaring costs of staples like milk, eggs, bread make ordinary Americans glum about economy”
From dictionary.com:
Median: the middle number in a given sequence of numbers, taken as the average of the two middle numbers when the sequence has an even number of numbers: 4 is the median of 1, 3, 4, 8, 9. I guess this article will be taken as further proof that the USA really needs the No Child Left Behind act.
I’m not sure how, but I’ll bet China is behind this bee epidemic: “As bees go missing, a $9.3B crisis lurks“
“…in a honeybee-less world, almonds, blueberries, melons, cranberries, peaches, pumpkins, onions, squash, cucumbers, and scores of other fruits and vegetables would become as pricey as sumptuous old wine.”
The article notes that “a third of our food, from apples to zucchinis, begins with floral sex acts abetted by honeybees trucked around the country on 18-wheelers”. It also notes that major bee die-offs seem to occur about once a decade. Hopefully this is another false alarm – but if it isn’t, our grocery shopping will have a lot more spend management and strategic sourcing elements as we try to find suitable alternatives to the fruits and vegetables we eat, or should be eating, daily and analyze the total value of apple pie relative to cherry pie.
Fair and balanced:
The U.S. military has apologized to Afghanistan for handing out religiously offensive soccer balls during a public relations exercise. Then quickly points out that the balls were made in CHINA!
… and bought in a market in Kabul! I think it’s time for those “Sold in the USA” and “Provided by the USA” labels … the way things are going, we may soon see the day where a “Made in the USA” label itself is a collector item!