Ranks of Illumina, Tesla Motors, Google, Samsung, Salesforce.com, Dropbox, BMW, Third Rock Ventures, Square and Amazon on the list of companies from 11 U.S. states and six countries -- organizations at the forefront in displaying "disruptive innovation" -- that will prove to surpass the competition, transform an industry and change our lives, according to the MIT Technology Review: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Source: MIT Technology Review.
Percentage of respondents in 15 developed countries around the world who are in a relationship who are likely to say they are "happy," according to a poll by global research company Ipsos on behalf of Reuters News: 78
Percentage of those who are not in a relationship who say they are "happy": 67
Percentage of respondents in Sweden who are in a relationship and say they are happy -- highest of the 15 countries polled -- compared with 76 percent of those who are not in a relationship and are happy: 91
Percentage of respondents in the United States who are in a relationship and say they are happy, compared with 74 percent of those who are not in a relationship and are happy: 89
Source: Ipsos Global.
Increase in outstanding household debt during October to December, the biggest quarterly jump since 2007, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York: $241 billion
Overall household debt by the end of 2013 -- 2.1 percent higher than it had been for the previous three months: $11.52 trillion
Ranks of mortgage debt ($8.05 trillion), student loan debt ($1.08 trillion), auto loan debt ($863 billion), credit card debt ($683 billion) and home equity line of credit ($529 billion) on the list of items that make up the overall household debt: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Source: Pewsocialtrends.org.
Ranks of Vancouver (No. 5 globally), Ottawa (14), Toronto (15), Montreal (23) and San Francisco (27) as the highest-ranking North American cities with the world's best quality of living, according to a list of 223 cities worldwide compiled by Mercer: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Ranks of Mexico City (No. 122 globally), Detroit (70), St. Louis (67), Houston (66) and Miami (65) on the list of North American cities with the lowest quality of living: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Source: Mercer.
Percentage of young adults between the ages of 24 and 34 who live at home with their parents, according to results based on Gallup Daily tracking interviews: 14
Source: Gallup.
Estimated losses between 2002 and 2012 in U.S. manufacturing revenue due to unfair competition fueled by low-cost imports made by global firms using illegal software, according to a study by Bill Kerr, associate professor at Harvard Business School, and Chad Moutray, chief economist for the National Association of Manufacturers: $240 billion
Number of jobs that a 10 percentage point reduction in global software piracy over four years would add to the U.S. economy as a whole: 65,745
Source: National Association of Manufacturers.
Percentage of IT decision makers (ITDMs) who say technology has improved the overall quality of their life, according to the results of a Harris Poll: 86
Percentage of U.S. adults who say the same: 71
Percentage of ITDMs who say technology encourages people to be more creative: 79
Percentage of U.S. adults who say the same: 65
Source: Harris Interactive.
Percentage of Americans who at least sometimes check reviews before purchasing a product or service, according to YouGov research: 79
Percentage of Americans who claim to always check reviews before purchasing a product or service: 26
Source: YouGov.
Estimated number of black-owned businesses in the United States, a gain of more than 60 percent in just five recent years, according to the U.S. Census Bureau: 2 million
Estimated number of people employed by these businesses, a growth of more than one-fifth in the same period: 920,000
Source: U.S. Census Bureau.
Percentage of Americans who have a traditional homemade soup recipe in the family, according to The Snapware brand sponsored survey: 74
Percentage who want to keep it a secret: 44
Source: Zeno Group.
Idle Thought
"A ship in port is safe; but that is not what ships are built for." -- Grace Hopper, computer scientist and a U.S. Navy rear admiral
(Readers can contact John MacIntyre at johnmacintyre(at)bwr.eastlink.ca.)