Team USA

[Hamartia Antidote]

Congratulations to American Pharoah, winner of the Belmont Stakes and the Triple Crown.

American Pharoah - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Belmont Stakes: 2:26.65
Preakness: 1:58.49
Kentucky Derby: 2:03.02

The top horse in the list...
Secretariat (horse) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia amazing 31 length Belmont Stakes win in 1973 (2:24 track record still stands, also hold the Preakness track record of 1:53, AND the Kentucky Derby track record 1:59. What a @#$@# horse!)

 

[SvenSvensonov]

American Pharoah - finish line

5 1/2 lengths

 

[F-22Raptor]

Congrats to American Pharoah, history was made today! His owner is an Egyptian American, I don't think he regrets immigrating here!

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Learning to drive when you are 16 in High School

His/Her first car

The inevitable problem...Dad's car + Mom's + all the kids cars.

 

[SvenSvensonov]

The United States Just Recorded Its Wettest Month. Ever.

In the 121 years that precipitation has been recorded in the contiguous U.S., no months were as wet as the one experienced this past May.

Numbers put out by the NOAA show that the May precipitation total for the continental U.S. was 4.36 inches — a whopping 1.45 inches above average. The NOAA says it was not just the wettest May on record, it was the wettest month ever recorded in the contiguous United States. Looking at the entire spring season, continental rainfall is 1.39 inches above average, making it the 11th wettest on record.

More details from the NOAA report:

Wetter than average conditions were widespread across the central United States. Fifteen states from the Great Basin to Mississippi River had precipitation totals that were much above average. Colorado, Oklahoma, and Texas were each record wet for the month. In fact, Oklahoma and Texas each had their wettest month of any month on record with precipitation totals more than twice the long-term average.

The heavy rains in the central U.S. were accompanied by severe weather with over 400 preliminary tornado reports, the most since April 2011. The flooding rains and severe weather resulted in dozens of fatalities and widespread property damage.

Mercifully, this record rainfall means that 24.6% of the contiguous U.S. is in drought, down from the 37.4% figure recorded this past April. Drought conditions are much improved across the Southern Plains, as well as across the Central and Northern Plains, Upper Midwest, and the Central Rockies.

 

[VCheng]

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

In the 121 years that precipitation has been recorded in the contiguous U.S., no months were as wet as the one experienced this past May..

My first reaction was to do a WTF????????
In Massachusetts it has rained hard maybe twice in the past two months. As the chart shows we are below normal.

But don't get all worried...even with almost zero rain our main reservoir is 95% full (it holds 6 years worth of water!). MWRA - Archive - Quabbin Reservoir Levels

Glad to see the breadbasket areas have enough water. Cheaper food later this year!

 

[SvenSvensonov]

My first reaction was to do a WTF????????

I had to do a double take too. I live in Virginia, last week we had 5 straight days of rain! We're in drought conditions apparently, but still get rain nearly every week.

I trust NOAA and its data, but this was not what I expected, I thought Virginia was at least average, if not getting more rain than normal.



From Texas and Wyoming to Oregon, growth is heating up west of the Mississippi

This Map Shows How Fast Each State Grew Last Year - Bloomberg Business

The nexus of U.S. growth shifted farther west in 2014, a report released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis Wednesday showed.

Gross domestic product increased by 4.3 percent in the Southwest last year as mining helped Texas boost its output by 5.2 percent, giving it the second-fastest growth rate of any state. The Rocky Mountain region saw a 3.9 percent expansion as the Far West, which includes California, Oregon, Washington and Nevada, grew 2.7 percent.

In addition to mining, professional, scientific and technical services helped Western states pull ahead from the rest of the nation last year. The latter made the biggest contribution to U.S. output growth by state in 2014.


North Dakota was the fastest-expanding state last year, growing 6.3 percent, following a 0.9 percent advance in 2013 that was revised down sharply from a previously reported 9.7 percent rate.

Still, the states boosted by mining in 2014 might benefit less this year. Oil prices so far this year have averaged about half of what they averaged during the same period a year earlier. Monthly employment data shows that cheap oil has already taken a toll on the industry. Jobs in the oil and gas industry dropped to 193,800 as of May 2015, down from a high of 201,500 last October.

States bringing up the rear included Mississippi — where the economy contracted 1.2 percent last year after dropping 1.1 percent in 2013 — and Alaska, which shrank 1.3 percent following a 4 percent contraction the prior year.

Overall, the U.S. economy expanded 2.2 percent in 2014 based on the state accounts, following 1.9 percent growth the prior year.

The BEA in September will start releasing state GDP data for each quarter, beginning with figures for the first three months of 2015 and going back to 2005.

 

[SvenSvensonov]

lighter = more
darker = less

Map shows where UFO sightings are seen the most in the USA

Here’s a really fun map that plots out where UFO sightings are seen the most across the US of A.Made by John Nelson of IDV Solutions, it shows where sightings are seen the most in relation to the area’s population, compares the popularity of different types of shapes of UFO across the years (1970’s had disk shaped, 2013 is all about the fireballs) and when UFOs are seen the most (summer nights!).

John Nelson writes:

Of course, as is the case for any observation data, there is a strong tendency towards echoing a population map. This is certainly the case with this sighting data, as well. In order to visualize the actual sighting phenomenon, I needed to normalize by the underlying population. The first, more prominent map shows a simple ratio of the sightings by population. A per-capita approach. The second, smaller and slightly more complex map, shows a bi-variate mapping of sightings in the color dimension (dark slate for low-sightings and bright green for high-sightings) and population density in the opacity dimension (denser populations are more transparent). The result is a map that is more nuanced regarding the problem of variable populations and area sizes.

 

[VCheng]

Iftaris at the White House go back a long way:

"On 9 December 1805, President Thomas Jefferson postponed dinner at the White House until sunset to accommodate an envoy from Tunis, an event considered by many to be the first White House iftar.[4]

Since 1996, the United States Department of State has held an annual iftar dinner for local and national community leaders and faith groups as well as foreign policy officials.[5]"

Iftar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Some retail chains Americans would be surprised/shocked/dismayed knowing they have a large international presence.

So I have already harped about how some of the absolutely lowest rated places like McDonald's, KFC, and Walmart have a large footprint worldwide. They consistently make the bottom of many lists...but somehow still have a large presence overseas giving a "taste of America" to the world.

So let's look at some others...

7-Eleven - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fun Facts - 7-Eleven Corporate
"7‑Eleven, Inc. is the world’s largest convenience store chain with some 55,800 stores in 16 countries, of which more than 10,500 are in North America, and the company has more outlets than any other retailer or food service provider."

Yes, don't laugh...this place (of all places!) has a large international presence...and it is the LARGEST convenience store chain on the planet. WTF?

The place you only go into in desperation to buy cigarettes or breath mints before a date (and also before the sun goes too far down because you don't want to be caught in the middle of a holdup) dominates the world.



It's pretty sad when you rate lower than gas station stores.

Check out some of the locations..

17,500 in Japan, 8000 in Thailand, 7000 in Korea, 5000 in Taiwan, 2000 in China...



Edit: Wait...apparently a Japanese company bought them in 2005. Well I'm sure they already had a large footprint by then.

You poor souls...get CVS or Walgreens!

 

[VCheng]

 

[Taygibay]

LOL @Syed.Ali.Haider I remember seeing earlier versions of this map.



It might have been easier to just give the nations above California though.

As of 2014 results, California is the 8th economy by GDP, trailing Brazil but in front of Russia.
The UK «» France* and Germany follow. Japan is a third of the US GDP - California and third Worldwide.
China takes second place, inching towards two-thirds of the same US GDP with California removed.

In fact, apart from these 6 countries and those on the map, one could go a step further … which I'll do later
on my blog but here is the exclusive preview for you and PDF :
NYC has a GDP of 1.4 trillion$ in 2014, second only to Tokyo's 1.6.

By those numbers, each would rank between 15 and 12 on the countries list.
In other words, a whooping 50% of nations ( at the level of Congo or Bolivia ) are poorer than cities like …
Bangalore, Seville, Sheffield or Albuquerque and top 50 to 25 nations incl. Pakistan, Israel and Norway
earn less annually than … Beijing in 11th place or Moscow in 10th on the cities list.
I was myself born in a city "richer" than Switzerland and on par with Saudi Arabia right below Turkey on GDP
about 19th place if it was a country by itself.

The comparisons by numbers in economy are always shocking!

The important point is then I guess : be happy wherever you live; money is not everything?
Have a great day all, Tay.

* France and the UK are so close that they exchange places easily from one year to the next and back hence
the little arrows. Long term averages favors Fr by a nose.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Some retail chains Americans would be surprised knowing they have such a large international presence

Starbucks - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Starbucks Corporation, doing business as Starbucks Coffee, is an American global coffee company and coffeehouse chain based in Seattle, Washington. Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world ahead of UK rival Costa Coffee, with 21,536 stores in 64 countries and territories, including 12,218 in the United States, 1,716 in China, 1,330 in Canada, 1,079 in Japan and 808 in the United Kingdom."

Yes, on cruise ships AND military ships too.

 

[Butchcassidy]

Poor Iowan, i feel sorry for them now