usa

The latest data has revealed some very shocking numbers when it comes to young minds from UK shifting base to the land of opportunities that we all know as America. The top universities in the US have recorded a high number of in-take from United Kingdom. The dull job scenario and overall job crunch in the market seems to be the reason why bright minds from the UK have decided to try their luck in United States of America.

As per the data released by the elite universities in America, it was evident that the British students are flocking the American colleges in large numbers especially for the flexibility in courses related to Arts field. The students are known to seek admission in the liberal arts which encompasses a wide spectrum and also provides them the liberty to study range of subjects before they take specialization in the third year.

The most compelling reason to make a noticeable shift is the steep hike in the tuition fee in UK universities. At the same time, American universities are offering attractive scholarships to international students which have led to the surge in the British brain drain from their own country. Listed below are the top five courses that the students are seeking admission in.

Michael Sam attends the University of Missouri. He is one of the best American Football defensive players in the college system. He also happens to be gay.

Last week, after completing his college football career, he came out as gay and in the likely event he is picked for an NFL team in the draft, that would make him unique in the league. 

However, just a matter of days later, anonymous NFL representatives were telling Sports Illustrated that his announcement would likely harm his prospects in the NFL.

After hearing this news, Dallas TV sports newsman Dale Hansen felt he had to get something off his chest. The result below is quite simply brilliant.

The recent acquittal of George Zimmerman, who killed the 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Florida in February this year, has sparked protests across the African-American community in the US, who are protesting against the verdict of the jury.

President Obama declared during a public speech, that the protests are the result of racist discrimination against black men who are often judged by the colour of their skin:

"It's important to recognize that the African-America community is looking at this issue through a set of experience and history that doesn't go away. There are very few African-American men in this country who haven't had the experience of being followed when they were shopping in a department store. That includes me. [...] The African- American community is also knowledgeable that there is a history of racial disparity in the application of our criminal laws."

Trayvon Martin might have been a ‘thug', he might have acted suspiciously and might have assaulted Zimmerman.

However, rather than focusing on whether Zimmerman reacted in self-defence (a right that is often abused and extremely hard to prove right or wrong) or not, the argument here is on the conversations going on about racial discrimination and prejudices that show still how ephemeral any integration can be.

Mermaids are up there with unicorns and dragons as some of the best known mythical creatures, yet a US government agency recently felt the need to officially deny their existence. This rather unusual step was taken after a fictional TV programme was mistaken by some viewers as factual.

It all started when the Discovery Channel aired ‘Mermaids: The Body Found' in May. As the press release detailed, the tongue-in-cheek programme painted "a wildly convincing picture of the existence of mermaids, what they may look like and why they've stayed hidden...until now".

However, some easily fooled viewers took the show as a factually accurate documentary and wrote to the National Ocean Service asking about the creatures. This led the agency to post an article on its educational website last week entitled: "No evidence of aquatic humanoids has ever been found".

On following the story up, the BBC managed to get a quite brilliant quote from National Ocean Service spokeswoman Carol Kavanagh, who clarified "we don't have a mermaid science programme".

As part of Foreign Fridays, we explore a different country each week through its most unusual, amusing and odd facts. If you want your country to appear, then simply get in contact with us either in the comments below or through Facebook or Twitter.

This week it is the turn of the USA:

During the weekend of the Super Bowl in 2012,
it is estimated that 1.25 billion(!) chicken
wings will be eaten in America.

This weekend is the all singing, all dancing, mega event that is the Super Bowl. On Sunday, hundreds of millions of people (literally) in America will invite their friends around, prepare the refreshments and sit down in front of the TV to watch the finalé to the American football season. They may be the only country in the world to properly understand the rules of it, but they certainly know how to put on a show.