rigorousintuition.ca

My idea for this thread is to assemble all the factoids and statistics that one comes across in reading, ones that don't require a context to be interesting and/or impressive, and that are worth taking note of and (if possible) remembering.
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From Jan Michael Greer: the world derivative market has now reached a total paper value in excess of one quadrillion dollars. The conventional wisdom has it that such sums are beyond the capacity of the human mind to grasp, and in this case, the conventional wisdom may well be right. (If you have the sort of fashionable lifestyle that costs you $2000 a day, for example, and you started spending it when multicellular life first evolved on Earth, you wouldn’t yet have spent one quadrillion dollars.)
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From George Monbiot: The government wrings its hands about the potential loss of revenue. But in the year before the crash the entire financial sector (of which the City of London is just a sub-station) generated only £12.4bn a year in corporation tax. According the Office for National Statistics, the government’s interventions in the financial markets have already added £141 billion to public sector net debt. Its potential liability is £1.2 trillion. It would take, in other words, between 12 and 97 years for the government to recoup the money it has given to the banks, assuming that its failure to regulate doesn’t result in another bail-out in a few years’ time. The City of London is a net drain on public accounts.

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Love it, stefano. I always keep a text document open on my desktop for just such biscuit crumbs, jam flecks and honey.

{Here are some hilarious, if not freaky, facts on Intellectual Property Rights and how people use them or mis-use them. From MotherJones... date of reference is from 2006}
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VENICE INTRODUCED the patent concept in 1474. Infringers were fined 100 ducats.
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BILL GATES had the 11-million-image Bettmann Archive buried 220 feet underground. Archivists can access only the 2% that was first digitized.
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MICROSOFT UK held a contest for the best film on “intellectual property theft”; finalists had to sign away “all intellectual property rights” on “terms acceptable to Microsoft.”
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ONLY ABOUT 5% of patents end up having any real commercial value.
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THE CLASSIC civil rights documentary Eyes on the Prize can’t be aired or sold because much of its archival footage is copyrighted.
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U.S. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY is valued at $5.5 trillion, equal to 47% of our GDP and greater than the GDP of any other nation but China.
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BY PASSING the memorial Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act, Congress added 20 years to copyrights. “I Got You Babe” now won’t enter the public domain until 2061.
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NEARLY 20% of the 23,688 known human genes are patented in the United States. Private companies hold 63% of those patents.

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“SENSORY TRADEMARKS” include a duck quacking (AFLAC), a lion roaring (MGM), yodelling (Yahoo!), giggling (Pillsbury), and a “pre-programmed rotating sequence of a plurality of high intensity columns of light projected into the sky to locate a source at the base thereof” (Ballantyne of Omaha).
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A FRENCH DIRECTOR had to pay $1,300 after a character in his film whistled the communist anthem, “The Internationale,” without permission.
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42% OF ALL VIDEO files shared online are pornographic. No porn-sharing cases have yet been tried in the U.S.
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PATENT LAWSUITS have more than doubled since 1992.
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RENTAMARK.COM makes money by claiming ownership of 10,000 phrases, including “chutzpah,” “casual Fridays,” “.com,” “fraud investigation,” and “big breasts.”
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MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.’s estate charges academic authors $50 for each sentence of the “I Have a Dream” speech that they reprint.

The International Organisation for Migration predicts that about 200-million people may be looking for somewhere new to live as climate change amplifies existing causes of migration, such as environmental stress and conflict over resources, by 2050.

Greenpeace puts forward a much bigger number: by the middle of this century, one in nine people will be forced to migrate because of climate change.

Dow Jones Closes at Same Level as Day Before 9/11

Written by Kevin Coy
Friday, 11 September 2009 21:59

As the business networks and news networks continue their special coverage today on the anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at a poignant level. On September 10th 2001, the DJI closed at 9605, and today, the DJI closed at 9605.

http://www.worldbusinessnews.co.uk/news/commentary/813-dow-jones-closes-at-same-level-as-day-before-9-11.html

The production costs of ONE silicon chip:

-3,200 cubic feet of bulk gases

- 22 cubic feet of toxic, corrosive and volatile gases

- 2,275 gallons of de-ionized water (a suspected liver, gastrointestinal and neurological toxin)

- 20 pounds of assorted chemicals

- 285 kilowatt hours of electricity (coal-fired or nuclear powered)

- 25 pounds og highly corrosive sodium hydroxide

- 2,840 gallons of wastewater and seven pounds of miscellaneous hazardous waste

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In the 1400's a law was set forth in England that a
man was allowed to
beat his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb.
Hence we have "the
rule of thumb"
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Many years ago in Scotland, a new game was invented.
It was ruled
"Gentlemen Only...Ladies Forbidden"...and thus the
word GOLF entered into
the English language.
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The first couple to be shown in bed together on
prime time TV were Fred
and Wilma Flintstone.
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Every day more money is printed for Monopoly than
the U.S.Treasury.
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Men can read smaller print than women can; women can
hear better.
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Coca-Cola was originally green.
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It is impossible to lick your elbow.
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The State with the highest percentage of people who
walk to work: Alaska
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The percentage of Africa that is wilderness: 28%
(now get this...)
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The percentage of North America that is wilderness:
38%

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The cost of raising a medium-size dog to the age of
eleven: $6,400

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The average number of people airborne over the U.S.
in any given hour:
61,000

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Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in
their hair.

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The first novel ever written on a typewriter: Tom
Sawyer.

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The San Francisco Cable cars are the only mobile
National Monuments.

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Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a
great king from history:
Spades - King David
Hearts - Charlemagne
Clubs -Alexander, the Great
Diamonds - Julius Caesar

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111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321

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If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has
both front legs in the
air, the person died in battle. If the horse has one
front leg in the air
the person died as a result of wounds received in
battle. If the horse has
all four legs on the ground, the person died of
natural causes.

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Only two people signed the Declaration of
Independence on July 4th, John
Hancock and Charles Thomson. Most of the rest signed
on August 2, but the
last signature wasn't added until 5 years later.

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Q. Half of all Americans live within 50 miles of
what?
A. Their birthplace

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Q. Most boat owners name their boats. What is the
most popular boat name
requested?
A. Obsession

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Q. If you were to spell out numbers, how far would
you have to go until
you would find the letter "A"?
A. One thousand

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Q. What do bulletproof vests, fire escapes,
windshield wipers, and laser
printers all have in common?
A. All were invented by women.

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Q. What is the only food that doesn't spoil?
A. Honey

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Q. Which day are there more collect calls than any
other day of the year?
A. Father's Day

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In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on
bed frames by ropes.
When you pulled on the ropes the mattress tightened,
making the bed firmer
to sleep on. Hence the phrase......... "goodnight,
sleep tight."

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It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years
ago that for a month
after the wedding, the bride's father would supply his
son-in-law with all
the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer and
because their calendar was
lunar based, this period was called the honey month,
which we know today as
the honeymoon.

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In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and
quarts... So in old England,
when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at
them "Mind your pints
and quarts, and settle down."
It's where we get the phrase "mind your P's and Q's"
.

However, others claim that printers 'coined' that
phrase because lower a
case p and q are the same letter turned backwards

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Many years ago in England, pub frequenters had a
whistle baked into the
rim, or handle, of their ceramic cups. When they
needed a refill, they used
the whistle to get some service. "Wet your whistle" is
the phrase inspired
by this practice.
<
B>------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
~~~~~~~~~~~AND FINALLY~~~~~~~~~~~~

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At least 75% of people who read this will try to
lick their elbow!

That was great clamour.

Tho I've wanted to see a reference for that rule of thumb thing for years. I think the first time I heard of the term rule of thumb I was about 5 years old and my grandad told me it.

he said if you bend your thumb at 45 degrees the distance between the tip and the joint is approximately an inch, and thats very useful when you need to measure stuff. Especially in the days before good tape measures.

Of course you need adult thumbs.

These are interesting--but are they true?

They have that feel of 'shockingness'--that makes a sort of wry truth, that characterizes urban legends.

I don't mean to pick on you chlamor, your 'golf' item was just the first that got a return on SNOPES ( http://www.snopes.com/language/acronyms/golf.asp ) which says 'golf' is possibly from the Dutch word 'kolf', for stick, club, or mallet, and that words in use before the 20th cent. rarely have acronymic origins.

(so the old 'For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge' theory of a certain word also fails the SNOPES test)

I'm not saying SNOPES is the ultimate fount of pure truth--forget what, but something I read there recently seemed bogus/biased, so approach with caution, but for relatively mundane items, it's got a certain value.

So--maybe part of posting on this thread could be to say whether or not you've checked on a 'crumb' and/or where it came from.

Just a thought.

I forgot to mention that obviously I try to lick my elbow every time someone says or types that its impossible.

I'm getting closer every time I try.

Here's something not worth mentioning..

Hunslet's Tower Works set for £19m transformation

Published Date: 11 September 2009
By Peter Lazenby
One of Leeds' most distinctive industrial landmarks - Tower Works in Hunslet - is to undergo a multi-million-pound transformation.

Tower Works has won more than £19m in Government funding.

The works, including three unique Italianate Towers, will be redeveloped and refurbished for modern office use.

The area around the buildings will be turned into public space with pedestrian links to the city centre.

The project is being spearheaded by the Government's regional development agency Yorkshire Forward and is part of the development of Holbeck Urban Village.

Work has already begun and will initially involve clearance and demolition followed by the refurbishment of listed buildings on the site, including the three towers.

The transormation will end more than 25 years of dereliction at the
site.

Tower Works in Globe Road next to the Leeds-Liverpool canal opened as a pin factory in 1864.

Its builder, Colonel Thomas Harding, included three Italianate Towers which are now one of the city's most remarkable historic, industrial and architectural landmarks.

Colonel Harding was a great admirer of Italian architecture and art and had the factory chimneys designed as copies of actual buildings in Italy.

One chimney is based on the Torre Del Communa in Verona and a second on Giotto's campanile in Florence.

The third tower/chimney is plain and is believed to replicate a Tuscan tower house.

The factory was damaged during a bombing raid in the Second World War.
It closed in 1981 and fell into dereliction.

The new development will complement the award winning Round Foundry Media Centre run by Yorkshire Forward.

Terry Hodgkinson, chairman of Yorkshire Forward, said: "We welcome this funding decision from Government and see this as an opportunity to put regeneration back into the skyline of Leeds City Centre.

"We have maintained that, wherever possible, we will work to ensure that our region's key regeneration schemes continue to progress.

"By undertaking this first phase of development, Yorkshire Forward is creating a first class opportunity for private investment to support the delivery of future phases of the scheme."

Coun Andrew Carter, joint leader and executive board member with responsibility for development for Leeds City Council, said: "The vision for Holbeck Urban Village is starting to become a reality, with several developments due for completion before Christmas, including the 'Light' Neville Street project, Granary Wharf and the newly opened City Inn Hotel.

"Tower Works is the next piece in the jigsaw and will open up further opportunities for investors, businesses and residents alike, connecting through to the Round Foundry and Marshall's Mill.

"This is a key milestone for the project and we are delighted to see it come to fruition."

http://www.kippaxtoday.co.uk/5006/Hunsl ... 5640139.jp

i can totally lick my elbow.

FWIW, I usually require another person to lick my elbow, but far from being a disability, I've found it to be a more than servicable substitute for my sacrificed autonomy. In other words, thanks for the update, OP ED!

[url=http://www.heraldscotland.com/russian-city-risks-its-world-heritage-status-over-scots-designed-tower-1.870987]Russian city risks its world heritage status over Scots-designed tower
BRIAN DONNELLY[/url]
Published on 17 Dec 2007

Saint Petersburg, the imperial capital of Russia famed for its elegance and beauty, risks losing status as a world heritage site under plans by a Scottish company to build the highest tower in Europe there.
(...)
The St Petersburg Union of Architects said the 77-storey tower would be an "architectural crime" while other critics dubbed the massive project, initially known as the Gazprom Tower, "Gazilla".

It's impossible to tell if someone is really awake without close medical supervision. People can take cat naps with their eyes open without even being aware of it.

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Anything less than five minutes to fall asleep at night means you're sleep deprived. The ideal is between 10 and 15 minutes, meaning you're still tired enough to sleep deeply, but not so exhausted you feel sleepy by day.

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Dreams, once thought to occur only during REM sleep, also occur (but to a lesser extent) in non-REM sleep phases. It's possible there may not be a single moment of our sleep when we are actually dreamless.

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REM dreams are characterised by bizarre plots, but non-REM dreams are repetitive and thought-like, with little imagery - obsessively returning to a suspicion you left your mobile phone somewhere, for example.

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Certain types of eye movements during REM sleep correspond to specific movements in dreams, suggesting at least part of the dreaming process is analagous to watching a film.

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Some scientists believe we dream to fix experiences in long-term memory, that is, we dream about things worth remembering. Others reckon we dream about things worth forgetting - to eliminate overlapping memories that would otherwise clog up our brains.

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Exposure to noise at night can suppress immune function even if the sleeper doesn’t wake. Unfamiliar noise, and noise during the first and last two hours of sleep, has the greatest disruptive effect on the sleep cycle.

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Most of what we know about sleep we've learned in the past 25 years.

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From here

§ê¢rꆧ wrote:
Most of what we know about sleep we've learned in the past 25 years.

Sure....


Did you know Columbus discovered America too?