Wired Research

Movie attendance peaked in 1946, when 90 million Americans—more than two thirds of the population—were going to the cinema every week.

In Night of the Living Dead (1968) zombies moved at 1 step/sec. In World War Z (out today), they have sped up to 6.7 SPS.

Today is the birthday of Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins, a biochemist whose discovery of vitamins earned him a shared Nobel Prize.

On this day in 1963, the first female in space, Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, returned to Earth after orbiting it 48 times.

Copies in first print run: The Hobbit: 1,500; The Fellowship of the Ring: 3,000; The Two Towers: 3,250; The Return of the King: 7,000.

The Hobbit devoted an average of 32.7 seconds of screen time per page of the book. The LOTR trilogy spent 21.3 seconds per page.

Happy National Running Day! Since 2000, the annual number of marathon finishers has increased 38% and half-marathon finishers 284%.

101 years ago today, Massachusetts passed the first state minimum wage law. Today, five states lack minimum wage laws.

About half of all American television commercials are 30 seconds long, a third are 15 seconds long, and a tenth are 60 seconds long.

In 1954, “psychologist Otis Binet” proposed a keycard for biz execs encoded with their IQs. (“Binet” was in fact satirist William H. Whyte.)

Box office dollars generated by the Smith (Will, Jada, et al) family: $6 billion. Total fictional lives saved by the clan: 63,648,098,766.

@barrycsr @zantoch We're talking Presidents; Richard Nixon has no schools named for him.

@Go_Hawks_Clones It's an abbreviated list; see page 42 of our June issue for more.

US presidents with public schools named for them: Kennedy: 98; Jefferson: 74; Wilson: 50; Washington: 47; Carter: 1; G.W. Bush: 1; Nixon: 0

US TV shows and the number of countries that can broadcast them: Grimm: 240; Homeland: 211; Glee: 209; Modern Family: 195; Simpsons: 180.

Data storage media life expectancies (years): USB stick: 10-12; newsprint: 10-20; clay tablet: 5,000+; Voyager Golden Record: 1 billion.

A new survey suggests that nearly 60 percent of first-time expectant mothers expect a gift from their partner on Mother's Day.

Tech jobs in San Francisco grew 41 percent between 2010 and 2012, compared with 22 percent in New York and 18 percent in Silicon Valley.

When Wolverine was created, his claws were assumed to be part of his gloves. Only in X-Men #98 did Marvel decide they were part of his body.

Carbonation impacts taste perception—notably by reducing sweetness and saltiness.