[Part two of a recurring series...part one is here.]
Barack Obama is poised to run the first privately financed general-election presidential campaign since the mid 1970s. One reason for the move away from public funds is that Obama could raise more many than would be available to him through the public financing program. [WSJ]
According to author Clay Shirky and IBM researcher Martin Wattenberg, Wikipedia represents about 100 million hours of human thought. Compare that to 200 billion hours of television watched in the US every year. [Clay Shirky]
Over the last six decades, the real incomes of middle-class families grew twice as fast under Democratic presidents as they did under Republican presidents. The real incomes of working-poor families grew six times as fast under Democratic presidents. [NY Times]
OPEC members will take in nearly $1 trillion in income because of record crude oil prices. [Reuters @ National Post]
The starting price for a 1000-year-old olive tree is around €18,000. The trees are popular as landscpae art for wealthy homeowners, golf courses, and resorts. [WSJ]
SUV sales are down and with them, their prices. The rising cost of gas is to blame. Many dealers won't even accept SUVs as trade-ins. [AP]
Brazilian chica nailed seven. [My inbox, unsolicited bulk email from "Johnna Laird"]
And finally, a bit of housekeeping from last week's post. Several people wrote in to say that Bob Herbert's statement that "roughly a third of all American high school students drop out" was entirely out of line with the actual statistics. I'm no statistician, but if you take 2005's ~10% annual dropout rate and apply it to an incoming 9th grade class for 4 years, you end up with about 66% of the students reaching graduation...or "roughly a third" dropping out. Not sure that's where the number came from, but it's a possibility.
