Numbers are abstract symbols that people use for counting and measuring. For some reason numbers seem to fascinate us, perhaps because humans like measuring everything and without numbers we'd be stuck saying things like, "There sure were a lot of people at the protest rally today." Was "a lot" something like 18, 180, 1800, or 18,000? The number gives definition.When I saw how much money the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has given away thus far in 2008, I was... well, impressed. Sharing that number was the impetus behind making Numbers my theme today.
312,527,657
312,527,657
The number of dollars the Gates Foundation gave away in first seven months of 2008.
500,138
Number of dollars Gates Foundation gave in July to World Health Organization to review the design and execution of the AIDS initiative in India.
150,000
Amount of dollars given to fight poverty in Seattle in July.
250,000
Amount given to the UC Berkely Foundation in July.
784,000,000
Worldwide box office receipts for Spiderman 2, in dollars.
822,000,000
Worldwide box office dollars for original Spiderman.
250,000,000,000
Amount of dollars lost annually to businesses due to counterfeit goods on market.
13,000
Number of seizures of counterfeit goods by U.S. government in 2007.
30,000
Number of hybrid vehicles FedEx has stated it wishes to get onto the road by 2013, but will likely fail.
Number of hybrid vehicles FedEx has stated it wishes to get onto the road by 2013, but will likely fail.
400
Number of years since Dutch eyeglass maker Hans Lipperhey attempted to patent the first telescope.
1,000,000,000
Number of people worldwide who do not have access to safe drinking water.
2,500,000
Number of deaths last year from preventable illnesses and malnutrition.
90
Percent of insect species which have yet to be named.
1136
Number of pages in Tolstoy's War and Peace, the Random House Modern Library edition.
3791
Population of Easter Island in the Pacific, where my brother and his wife are on vacation today.
23.17
Number of people per square kilometer on Easter Island.
329
The number for Ed Newman in the 1969 draft lottery.
58,169
Number of U.S. soldiers killed in Viet Nam War.
10,000
Approximate number of these deaths that were not combat related.
11,465Number of U.S. soldiers killed who were teenagers.
304,000
Number of U.S. soldiers wounded.
2,590,000
Number of U.S. citizens who served in Viet Nam.
Number of U.S. citizens who served in Viet Nam.
248,241,969
Number of Internet users in North America, 2008.
73.6
Percentage of North Americans currently using Internet.
Percentage of North Americans currently using Internet.
5.3
Percentage in Africa of Internet users.
1,176.8
Percentage growth of Internet use in Africa since year 2000.
1,463,632,361
Current number of Internet users worldwide.
11
My favorite number.
10
The number of books I own by Graham Greene
153
The number of large fish that Peter and disciples netted when fishing in John 21 after Jesus told them to throw their net into the water one more time after catching nothing all night.
153
Seating capacity of the Mexican restaurant in St. Cloud where I ate a Cancun (seafood burrito) after dropping my daughter off at college this past Sunday.
30
The number of Dylan songs on Barack Obama's iPod.
1.3
Number of dollars spent to build new stadium for New York Yankees, in billions.
59
Number of people following me on Twitter.
1246
Number of people following Desarae Veit.
Well... I gotta head to the office, so... That's all, folks! Have a great day.
$700,000,000,000
ReplyDeleteA "whole lot" of money, sometimes referred to in the Northern Minnesota vernacular, as a "whole sh*t-load" of money. (On the same order as the amount that's been spent in Iraq, so far, not counting the future costs that will be mounting exponentially.)
The bankers are laughing all the way to the bank, and the US tax- and fine- payers will be getting the bill for this latest unregulated caper: about $2,300 per man, woman and child.
The tax- and fine- payers who *can't* pay, will be deemed "irresponsible", and will be "given the opportunity" to work the debt off at a dollar or two a day, (plus part of a small room and barely enough food to eat), at some wholesome facility dedicated and devoted to the purpose of teaching responsibility. (NERCC, for example.)
The tax- and fine- payers who *won't* pay, will be deemed "recalcitrant", and will be "placed" in a facility dedicated and devoted to the purpose of treating them with various kinds of experimental therapies and medications, to "help them get better". (Miller Dwan Psych Ward, for example.)
Not to worry, folks. It's only "Christian tough-love" snuggling you in for the night.
Only a d*mned black-sheep-dyed-in the-wool reprobate would call it "Out-and-out murderous Fascism rearing its ugly head once again".
Or, as Venita's mother told me, not long before she died in 2001 from a diabetes reaction to the meds that were being forcibly shot into her to "help her get better": "It's slavery days all over ag'in, but worse 'dis time."
This is a response to my original Numbers post. Seemed I should mention sources.... recent issues of Esquire (Gates Foundation data), Fast Company, and Wired magazines provided data for the first half of our data. Viet Nam stats were obtained via a Google search and Easter Island stats from Wikipedia.
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