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Category Archives: Statistics

Compensation disparity

08-Oct-09

In 1965 the average CEO was paid about 24 times as the average worker. In 2007 the average CEO was paid about 275 times the average worker [Source]: The New Yorker, Oct 12 – 2009

Food production stats of the day

14-Jul-09

In California 10% farms are producing 60% of all the food. A lot of small farms produce very little of the total food. I big chain like Whole Foods, which is supposedly sustainable, buys from a few big Organic vendors.

World GDP growth rates

05-Feb-09

Since 1965 to 2007 – the period for which GDP statistics were available from the World Bank, GDP has steadily grown from 1.9 trillion in 165 to 54.3 trillion in 2007. Economic data for 2008 is not available but it will be interesting to see what effect the great economic collapse of 2008 had on [...]

Those NYC women

28-Jan-09

Zubin Jelveh on Portfolio has an interesting piece on why such a small percentage (~47%) of married women are in the workforce in New York City. One word reason – traffic. Minneapolis is at the other end of the specturm with 87% of married women in the working population.

Ben Stein at the Commonwealth Club

28-Feb-08

Ben Stein will be recognizable to most as the monotonic, hilariously laconic psychiatrist from The Mask. He’s also a recognized economist probably making him a unique species – an economist actor. He spoke at the Commonwealth club on the 24th of January 08 and here’s a summary of the facts he presented and his arguments [...]

Dying cells

13-Jul-07

The average age of cells in your body is 7 to 10 years [*]. The resulting question might in reality turn out to be naive, but it does strike you immediately; “If all our cells are replaced eventually, how are we the same person after 10 years?” Also, even though the number of cells in [...]

Charity

11-Dec-06

Half of the charity donations in the US happen in the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Americans are expected to donate more than a 100 billion dollars to charity this holiday season, bless their souls.

Inflation in Zimbabwe

18-Aug-06

… has reached 1000%. Yes you read that right. It’s the highest rate of inflation in any country in the world today. According to the BBC, A loaf of bread now costs between Z$80,000 – Z$110,000 (79 US cents – $1.08) up from about Z$7,500 last year Just imagine it. People would always need to [...]

Languages of the world

19-Jul-06

There are 6,912 “known living languages” in the world. According to the same source “The number of languages listed for India is 428. Of those, 415 are living languages and 13 are extinct”. A country-by-country summary reveals a clearer picture of the language distribution. Surprisingly, Indonesia, which is so much smaller than India in size, [...]