DAVID WITTEN These are facts I find interesting. They are not specific to a category or field.
- The Abu Dhabi government owns a majority share of all parking meters in Chicago.
- In the United States, 4% of 5-year-olds will never make it to the age of 40.
- In addition to luxury cars, Rolls-Royce helps manufacture military airplanes for the US government.
- 94% of Parisians live less than a 5 minute walk from a bakery
- Observant Jews with the last name Cohen cannot enter a cemetery.
- Mothers who were pregnant during the Dutch Famine of 1944-1945 gave birth to children who had a 50% incidence of obesity, hypertension, or Type II diabetes.
- <body bgcolor="davidwitten"> test </body> produces a (Check out the source code above for yourself!)
- Coal use in the UK has declined 97% in the last decade.
- 80+% of lab rats are male because of the belief that the estrous cycle of female mice makes them more variable than males.
- 20% of Americans over the age of 70 currently have cancer. :(
- Amazon doesn't include product names in receipt emails (check for yourself) to prevent Google from learning what people are buying.
- Biscuit comes from the Latin for "cooked twice", as they were originally baked then dried out in a slow oven.
- Underweight babies with smoking mothers have a lower infant mortality rate than underweight babies with non-smoking mothers. (Simpson's Paradox)
- How do scientists poll people on sensitive topics such as "Have you gotten an abortion?"
Ask them to flip a coin. If heads, ask them to respond "yes". If tails, ask them to answer the question.
True population proportion is 2p(yes) - 1
- When the Mongols under Kublai Khan invaded Japan in 1274 and 1281, their fleets were destroyed by massive typhoons despite them invading outside of typhoon season.
The Japanese called these storms "divine wind" or "kamikaze" as they claimed the typhoons were sent by the gods to protect Japan.
- One in five Americans has been personally threatened with a gun.
- One in five Americans has a family member who was killed by a gun.
- Illegal drugs and alcohol made up 2% of US nominal GDP in 1980.
Nails made up 0.5% of US nominal GDP in the early 1800s.
- A motorcyclist who travels 15 miles every day for 20 years has a 2.5% chance of dying in an accident.
- Transporting a four-once pear cup from Buenos Aires to Bangkok to LA results in 30g of CO2 emissions.
Driving a typical car two blocks in Manhattan results in 35.6g of CO2 emissions.
- The common claim "Happiness doesn't increase above $75,000" is completely wrong. That stat in that paper specifically refers to "emotional well-being", measured by asking people their mood yesterday.
In terms of life satisfaction, happiness, stress, and well-being, they all increase linearly with log income and never plateau.
- A 10dB noise increase in your environment decreases productivity by 5% (due to an effect on cognition,
not effort
).
- Reducing CO2 concentration by 1000 ppm in the classroom results in a 5% increase in student test scores and a 2.5% increase in attendance.
- 23% of Congress is over the age of 70. 34% of the Senate is over the age of 70.
- In the last twenty years, suicide rates decreased by 40% in France but increased by 40% in the US.
- One third of all shoplifting arrests in NYC last year (there were 18k total) involved 327 people.
- Worldwide insect population has dropped by 75% since 2000.
- The Friendship Paradox: On average, your friends have more friends than you.
- You're 3x more likely to have a heart attack at 9 am compared to 11 pm.
- "Three times faster" doesn't mean "multipled by 3", it means "multipled by 4". (because "1x faster" means speed * 2)
- The creator of Limewire founded Tower Research.
- The life expectancy of an NFL player is 53-59 years old (the variation is due to various positions and studies).
- There are more honey bees alive today than ever in history.
- MIT owns a
majority
stake in the company Bose.
- Aeschylus died when an eagle dropped a tortoise on his head. According to the lore, the eagle mistook his bald head for a rock.
- Manhattan's population was greater in 1900
than today
.
- The placebo effect is mostly regression to the mean.
- MSNBC is short for Microsoft NBC.