The mystery of the 5-cent Coca-Cola

The price of the first serving of Coca-Cola was 5 cents in 1886, about a dollar in today's money. Coke no longer sells for a nickel, and that is not terribly surprising. What is surprising is that it took more than 60 years for the price of Coke to change.

Tim Harford (Slate, May 11, 2007)

Frontier counties

The 2000 census found more "frontier counties" - that is, counties with six or fewer people per square mile - in Kansas now than in 1890.

Dallas Morning News, May 8, 2007

Black gold

"Even with high oil prices, Saudi Arabia's annual per capita income, at $14,000, is only about half that of oil-free Israel."

Edward Luttwak (Prospect, May, 2007)

Talk is cheap

Sending data on the first trans-Atlantic telegraph cable cost $10 a word -- in 1866.

Wired, February, 2007

Harper's Index

83: Annual budget of Miami's police department, expressed as a percentage of the production cost of the film Miami Vice.

Harper's Magazine (as reported in Fort Worth Star-Telegram, January 7, 2007)