Remember the old movies where convicts stamp out license plates. Well, that was then, and nowadays the United States has seen a recent increase in the number of private firm/correctional facility partnerships that uses prison labour to manufacture goods and provide services. On the rise since the creation of the Prison Industries Enhancement (PIE) program in 1979, prison-industry partnerships have risen 200 percent. Prison is a major industry: Currently, over 40 state and county-based certified correctional industry programs operate in the United States, and these programs manage at least 175 business partnerships with private industry. Read the rest of this entry »

Small facts about our big world.

Factoid – a small fact, sometimes called trivia, factlet or even mini-fact. Dictionaries call a factoid either an insignificant bit of trivia or an urban legend turned accepted truth over time. Lists o’ Plenty calls a factoid an interesting bit of information that may come up somewhere over coffee or in cocktail talk.
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These visualizations are part of an extensive study of the music of the Beatles. Many of the diagrams and charts are based on secondary sources, including but not limited to sales statistics, biographies, recording session notes, sheet music, and raw audio readings.

Its All the Walrus

Click into the post to see more selected images from the project… Read the rest of this entry »

Each year the Princeton Review puts out its list of Best Party Schools (US colleges and universities) and so in the spirit of Back To School today, this list is reprinted here in LOP (note that this is not an LOP written list!). How much does the party school ranking matter? Should students make decisions about whether to go (or not to go) to a school based on this ranking? And how does the Princeton Review decide on the top party school? Isn’t the party wherever you make it?

Read on to find out why this list is really quite meaningless…

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Tennis is one of the most graceful and beautiful sports to enjoy as a spectator. The game is also graced with a great many beautiful players, and in the professional women’s tennis circuit there are certainly some players who have the rare combination of talent, athleticism and beauty. This post presents some of the hottest babes in professional tennis.

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Some people manage to age gracefully, getting better with age like a fine wine, as the saying goes. Others just seem to fall apart completely, looking years older than they really are. Sure, there may be some genetics at work there, but many people have habits and lifestyles that bring it on, big time. This list presents ten things that people do that can accelerate the aging process, making one’s appearance old far ahead of their time.

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In the 100+ years that the US Open Tennis Championship has been played, interest in tennis has soared. In the spirit of the tournament that is half-way through at the time of this post, LOP presents a selection of stats on women’s champions, players and top achievers of the modern era of the US Open Tennis Championship.

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In the 100+ years that the US Open Tennis Championship has been played, interest in tennis has soared. In the spirit of the tournament that is half-way through at the time of this post, LOP presents a selection of stats on mens champions, players and top achievers of the modern era of the US Open Tennis Championship.

Arthur-Ashe-US-Open-Tennis-Champion-1968

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Matt’s genius is usually locked safely away in his brain. But we take a step not only through Matt’s front door, but into his mind’s eye, to see your internet connection the way he does. See if you can pick up some tips to make your connection faster in ‘Matt’s House’.
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On this day – September 5 – we take a look back in time. This list presents Twenty Memorable Events that happened on September 5, this day in history, to track what this day on the calendar celebrates in our common, shared past.
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