Thursday, September 29, 2005

Interesting stuff to ponder

Could the little voice you're hearing in your head be one of these guys?

The first thing I turn to when I get my monthly Harper's Magazine is the Harper's Index. For those of you unfamiliar with Harper's, the index pulls together figures from a variety of reliable sources and list those figures in an interesting (and ironic) way. A sampling of October's index:

Total US spending on poppy eradication and other antidrug efforts in Afghanistan last year: $780,000,000.
Amount it would have cost to purchase the country's entire 2004 poppy crop: $600,000,000.

Minutes that NBC and CBS spent covering the Darfur genocide last year: 8.

Percentage of patients hearing voices who hear a male voice, according to a British study: 71.
Percentage who hear an "upper-class" or "BBC" voice: 30.

Percentage by which the average amount of
anestheic required by redheads exceeds the average for everyone: 19.

Number of US states where bestiality is legal: 20.

Kernels of candy corn manufactured for Halloween each year: 9,000,000,000.

Most everything in Harper's is worth reading, so check it out. I'm tellin' ya - this makes for great bathroom reading! (You're welcome, Harper's, for the second plug in a month.)

2 comments:

Patt said...

I think you have too much time on your hands...only kidding great blogg

MaryB said...

Oh, don't I wish! I have a list of things I could do if I had too much time on my hands - but, then - if I did everything I on the list, I'd be in the same no-time-on-my-hands fix, eh? No, the secret is multitasking - making the most of potty time. Cheers!