Raw Data: Significa, Insignifica, Stats and Facts
November 17, 2008
Sex and Cinema
Among the 250 top-grossing domestic films of 2007, the percentage for which a woman was a cinematographer: 2; director: 6; writer: 10; producer: 22.
Tonsil Hockey
1 minute of passionate kissing burns only 2 calories—and that’s if you’re doing it right.
The True Cost of Justice
In California, laws are copyrighted, which means a digital copy of the state’s Code of Regulations costs $1,556 and a paper version costs $2,315. The state generates about $880,000 annually by selling its laws.
Mary Ann Still Beats Ginger
Cosmopolitan magazine asked more than 30,000 men, “Which look on a woman gets you hot for her?”
- 67% chose “The girl next door (ponytail, natural makeup, casual-butcute outfit, approachable smile).”
- 12% chose “The wild thing (fashion-forward hair and outfit; spontaneous, up-for-anything MO).”
- 12% chose “The sex bomb (seductive makeup, revealing clothing, superhighheels, coy attitude).”
- 9% chose “The ice queen (chic hair and makeup, stylish clothes that look expensive, cool vibe).”
Piece of Mind
The U.S. Army has granted researchers $4 million to develop technology to read a person’s thoughts.
November 10, 2008
Know Your Roll Position
72% of people prefer their toilet paper to come off the roll from the top rather than from the bottom.
Viral Epidemic
Rick Astley be damned: 13 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute.
Holding On
81% of men still have mementos from an ex.
$32,500
The amount bandleader Paul Shaffer paid at auction for Godfather of Soul James Brown’s medical bracelet.
Gloveless Sex
Of reproductive-age American women who use contraception, only 18% rely on their partners to wear a condom.
November 3, 2008
Dead Last
The rank of the United States among the leading 19 industrialized nations in preventing deaths with timely access to professional health care: 19th.
Welcome Home
Although military veterans represent only 11% of civilian adults in the U.S., they make up more than 26% of the homeless population. 195,854 vets are out on the streets every night.
Safe as Houses
For every 1 percentage point increase in a neighborhood’s home foreclosures, violent crime increases 2.33%.
And You Think Our Recession Blows
Runaway inflation in Zimbabwe has pushed the price of a new laptop computer to 1.2 quadrillion Zimbabwean dollars. That’s about U.S. $25,000 at the official exchange rate.
The Real Cost of War
According to Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, the United States’ total bill for the Iraq war, including payment of death benefits and care for injured veterans, will exceed $3 trillion over the next 50 years.
