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...they are. The founders stuck a Census requirement in the Constitution so that every 10 years, the young, stretchy country would recalculate which states got how many lawmakers. They worried that a state might try to inflate its population to increase its representation, so they cleverly arranged that the first Census would also be used to spread around the costs of the Revolution. In 1790, 650 federal marshals on horseback began going house to house. It cost $45,000 and took a year and a half to count 3.9 million people...
...course, there would be more money to spread around if it didn't cost so much to count us in the first place: about $15 billion, according to some estimates. That includes $338 million for ads in 28 languages, a Census-sponsored NASCAR entry, hiring Marie Osmond to do outreach on QVC, $2.5 million for a Super Bowl ad and spots on Spanish radio and soap operas and Dora the Explorer. The ads are meant to boost the response rate, since any household that doesn't mail back its form gets visited by a Census worker, another pricey line item...
...current wife is cheating on him in response to his half-dozen extramarital affairs - and his stalled work collide on the full-length polar-bear rug in his living room. (Updating Chekhov: If the author of a climate-change novel shows you a polar-bear rug in the first act, you can be sure it will bare its teeth in the next one.) Quite suddenly, Beard discovers what he believes is the solution to the problem of climate change: artificial photosynthesis, harnessing sunlight to split water and yield hydrogen and oxygen, which can be used to drive fuel cells...
...With his first major piece of education legislation out of the way, Obama will likely move on to K-12 matters later this year as he attempts to rework the unpopular No Child Left Behind law. But before then, members of Congress (and America's students) are going on spring break...
Easter Sunday brought a plethora of offensive production to Ithaca, N.Y., as Harvard and Cornell (6-9, 2-2 Ivy) split a pair of games. In the first, the Crimson was the kid at the egg hunt with all the candy, but the Big Red bounced back in the nightcap, as Harvard (8-14, 2-2) found itself with a nearly-empty basket...