Good Bites

Fewer Pirate Attacks on World Seas in 2011

Saturday, January 21, 2012

With more international boats patrolling the high seas, piracy in 2011 dropped for the first time in five years. Pirate attacks in the South China Sea were cut by almost two thirds and Bangladesh incidents plunged by more than half. -Associated Press

Stunning Millenium Goal Progress on Educating Children

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Over the past 12 years, the world has made stunning progress toward the goal of increasing the number of children attending primary school -- adding 37 million kids to school rolls, an increase of 35 percent. - NY Times

NYC Murder Rate Declined 74% in 18 Years

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

The New York City murder rate for the first half of 2011 declined 8.8 percent compared to the same period last year. The 2011 murder rate is also 22.5 percent lower than in 2001 and 74.9 percent lower than in 1993. - Reuters News

Rainforest destruction cut by 25%

Saturday, June 04, 2011

Destruction of the world's rain forests has declined by 25 percent in the three most important regions -- the Amazon, the Congo and the Borneo Mekong -- during the last decade, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

Identity Thefts Plummet

Monday, February 14, 2011

Last year the number of people victimized by identity theft decreased 28 percent, to 8.1 million, according to a report by Javelin Strategy & Research -- 3 million fewer victims than in 2009.

UN Finds Global Hunger Easing in 2010

Sunday, September 19, 2010

The number of people in the world suffering chronic malnutrition fell for the first time in 15 years  -- down 9.3 percent in 2010, according to the United Nations' food agency. - FAO

Cyber Crime Down 50 percent in 2009

Tuesday, August 03, 2010

A cybercrime report released in July 2010 revealed a 50 percent drop in the number of attacks on retail stores in 2009, with 143 million stolen records, down from 360 million the year before. (CS Monitor)

South Africa Lifts GDP With World Cup Investments

Saturday, July 24, 2010

South Africa's economy is one percent higher than it would have been without the spending and infrastructure development that went into hosting the soccer World Cup, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said on Thursday. (Reuters, July 2010)

Mild Season for Tornado Alley

Monday, August 03, 2009

"During a remarkable 17-day lull from mid-May through early June, there were no tornado watches issued anywhere in the United States, a period that is typically the height of the season in Tornado Alley," reported the AP this week. (July 31, 2009)

Bird Rediscovered After 80 Years

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Beck's petrel, a small seabird relative of albatrosses and shearwaters, was rediscovered in 2007 by Israeli ornithologist Hadoram Shirihai in a group of Pacific islands near Papua New Guinea. There hadn't been a confirmed sighting of the bird since 1929. Read more in Wikipedia. - June 11, 2009