Comments

Love it Tom

Normally I hate numbers but love this type of simple stuff.

Did you know the UK National Health Service (NHS)is the THIRD LARGEST employer in the world after the Chinese Army and Indian Railways? - The NHS employs over one million people.

So why the hell can my Mum not get her toe nails cut :-)

Posted by Trevor Gay at August 10, 2005 10:22 AM

Was that Bush or Kerry? They both said it. Bush to the Iraqi insurgents. Kerry to those who would debate his Vietnam service. In fact, with Kerry it was "BRING IT ON!" "Bring it on" just doesn't seem that wise unless you're holding a knock-down hand.

Posted by Hunter Baker at August 10, 2005 11:15 AM

I find the time spent viewing in galleries fascinating. Is it that we don't have as much time as we did or are we less interested in the art? Even in 1987 it seems like a very short period of time (10 sec) to 'take in' a painting with any degree of attention. Unless they are using an average calculation based on total time (per viewer) spent in the gallery and number of pieces on display, in which case the results could simply be indicative that galleries have more pieces in them today than they did in 87?

I love the stats that remind us how many hours we spend waiting at traffic lights during our lifetime, on the toilet, etc. It's amazing how we spend our time when you break it down over the course of our lives!

Posted by Tom O'Leary at August 10, 2005 4:07 PM

My favourite factoid: 82.35% of all stats are made up on the spot! But there's something wonderfully trivial, intriguing, arcane & fascinating about this kind of stuff. Just don't enquire too deeply about how you actually measure time spent in front of each painting and ensure consistency between the periodic measurements...

I was thinking about this and Steve Yastrow's posting, "It Makes You Sick?" I wonder what the average People's Weekly reader would make of us folks who love this particular kind of ephemera? Would they be as scathing as some of the postings on that blog? Different strokes, eh?

Posted by Mark JF at August 10, 2005 4:54 PM

I've always loved the saying: "Liars can figure and figures can lie."

For every statistic used to support a view, another can be manufactured against it.

Posted by Tom O'Leary at August 11, 2005 6:55 AM

As someone who in college was nicknamed "The font of useless knowledge" for finding such seemingly trivial information fascinating, I have learned over the years that sometimes finding, understanding and retaining these kinds of nuggets of knowledge makes me appreciate the little things that much more. It also makes me that much more aware of their relationship to the big things in life.

Posted by Andrew Hayden at August 11, 2005 8:45 PM

love these factoids.
But hey, I'm italian and I bet we can have much more miles of spaghetti than that...

Posted by Luca Vergano at August 12, 2005 12:47 AM

I agree Luca...I think I ate 82 miles of tortellini con panna e proscutti in the 3 years I lived in Naples! I would do another 82 miles without breaking a sweat! Especially with freshly grated parmesean!

Posted by Tom O'Leary at August 12, 2005 10:32 AM

This puts my life into perspective!

Life is speeding up and we are eating more. When will we learn? Or when will we unlearn!

Chow!

PS Don't worry about the next big thing, you'll see it when comes. Keep up the great work!

Posted by Steve Robert at August 12, 2005 6:39 PM