FACTS

devil’s advocate

"[D]evil’s advocates . . . engaged in the time-honored process of arguing one side of a proposition in order to test the other’s flaws. That name dates back to the 17th century, when the Roman Catholic Church created an office popularly known as the advocatus diaboli — a person tasked with making the case against [...]

Indie Rock/ Mali

Everywhere you turn these days, it seems that the indie rock world is exploring African sounds. Labels like Dead Oceans, Secretly Canadian and True Panther have also begun releasing new recordings by African musicians, those acts have begun playing American gigs, and African music regularly gets attention on the indie-minded Web sites of Pitchfork, Mojo [...]

union workers

            11.9: The percentage of American workers in unions last year, the lowest proportion in more than 70 years, according to the government’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. The number of workers in unions fell by 612,000 last year, to 14.7 million. About 20 percent of workers were in unions in 1983; the figure was [...]

Apple/ cash

       [Some Apple investors have] deep frustrations over Apple's cash pile, a $50 billion lode that is expected to swell to $70 billion by year-end. The vast sum exceeds the gross domestic product of two-thirds of the world's countries—and all but 36 of the market values of companies in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock [...]

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