Sunday, November 21, 2010

11 Things I Learned This Past Week

----- About one-third of American wives earn more money than their husbands.

----- The average vehicle is worth 34% of its original value after 5 years on the road.

----- Cher met her latest boyfriend online.

----- In 1907 more than 20,000 Muslims were killed by cholera during the annual pilgrimage to Mecca known as the hajj. (Cholera has a 50% mortality rate when left untreated.)

----- The price of aluminum has dropped nearly 60% in the last few years. It is one of the steepest declines that the metals industry has ever seen. (Thanks to recycling, some 75% of all the aluminum ever made is still in use.)

----- Last year, 4462 motorcycle riders died in crashes; about 65% were not wearing helmets. (If you ride a motorcycle in Ohio, you only have to wear a helmet if you're 17 years old or younger.)

----- 44% of NFL fans are female.

----- Nearly 25% of people on Medicare have 5 or more chronic illnesses. They account for two-thirds of all Medicare expenses.

----- There are 60,000 miscarriages in Thailand every year.

----- Men are cited for reckless driving 3.41 times as often as women.

----- Dutch artist Piet Mondrian was so deeply shocked by the sight of a bullfight just over 100 years ago that he went off to live by himself in the countryside. Apparently his well-known painting style of boxes and lines arose at least in part as an attempt to reimpose order on the bloody chaos of existence.

2 comments:

  1. These are all interesting tidbits. Since we seem to be bombarded with bazillions of bits of info, what was it about all these particular facts and factoids that drew them to your attention to post here? I'm imagining a story which might tie all them together.... much as Mondrian's lines attempted to do. ||=||==||=|| (;-P)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dear ChrisClicks -

    As much as I might like to explain these selections, the restless chipmunk in me insists that I scamper off in search of delicious new info-tidbits instead. (My inner chipmunk can be quite impossible to live with if I deny him his freedom!)

    If anyone has an hypothesis as to why I posted any or all of these particular info-tidbits, I'd love to hear it. :-)

    ReplyDelete