Random Notes from a Crank

Here are some enlightening factoids from "Harper's Index" and Harper's Findings from the January issue:

• Number of children the Trump Administration separated from their parents at the border whose parents have yet to be located: 666
• Estimated portion of those parents who have been deported without their children: 2/3
• Factor by which the word "hate" is said more often on Fox News than on MSNBC: 5.5
• Number of climate-related disasters worldwide between 1980 and 1999: 3,656
• Between 2000 and 2019: 6,681
• Percentage by which sales on Minibar, an alcohol e-commerce site, exceeded the average on the day Biden was declared president: 76
• By which sales of champagne exceeded the average: 386
• "Five of the six early Homo species were driven to extinction by climate change." 
• "Hot days worsen test scores for black and Hispanic children."

I featured this article in the previous post about albums of the year, but do yourself a favor and read "The Words To Describe 2020," which is a recount of the words that Washington Post readers used to describe the year. The top three were "exhausting," "lost," and "chaotic." But my favorite submission was this one: "Like looking both ways before crossing the street and then getting hit by a submarine." 

Random Notes from a Crank

Here's some factoids from the September "Harper's Index":

• Minimum number of police killings since 2010 in which restrained victims told officers they couldn't breathe: 32
• Number of those incidents that resulted in criminal charges against the officers: 5
• Number of those cases in which charges were not eventually dropped: 2
• Average number of times per day that Donald Trump tweeted in 2017: 7
• In 2020: 32
• Percentage of Americans who want Trump to tweet more frequently: 3

And here's some tidbits from Harper's "Findings" from that same issue:

• "The depression-prone are less attracted to the political right."
• "The presence of a professional sports team increases a city's seasonal flu deaths."
• "Recent toilet-paper hoarding was more prevalent among Americans than Europeans and more prevalent among the old than the young."

The Premier League had a trio of upsets on Sunday. One was mild. The other two were surprising. My Spurs whipped Manchester United 6 to 1 at Son and Kane both had a couple of goals, and the Frenchmen Aurier and Ndombele had a goal each. West Ham beat Leicester City early on Sunday, and Aston Villa demolished Liverpool 7 to 2 later in the day.

I know it's early in the season, but Everton sits atop the table, and Aston Villa is second. 

Culling the December Index and Findings

I've had a subscription to Harper's Magazine for a couple of decades. I started reading it when I began college if I remember correctly.

Two continuing features in the magazine I always look forward to are "Harper's Index," which is at the start of the magazine, and the "Findings" page that closes each issue. Most people are familiar with the Index, but I'm pretty sure the "Findings" page isn't as old. It provides an interesting and often bizarre collection of published research that's been disseminated recently.

I thought I'd pass along a culling from both features in the December issue that I find particularly rich.

From Harper's Index:

• Portion of income growth since the end of the recession that has gone to corporate profits: 9/10
• Minimum number of pigs stolen in Minnesota this September: 744
• Percentage by which the average contracted project costs the government more than the equivalent government-run project: 83
• Date on which Governor Rick Scott said that Florida doesn't need "more anthropologists": 10/10/2011
• Date on which Scott's daughter received her anthropology degree: 1/11/2008
• Chance that an American between 18 and 24 has read a book in the past year that wasn't required for school or work: 1 in 2
• Rank of non-denominational Christianity among the fastest-growing religions in America during the past two decades: 2
• Rank of "none": 1
• Percentage of the vote received by the Pirate Party in Berlin's September municipal elections: 8.9
• Number of sex dolls distributed to SS soldiers by Heinrich Himmler, according to a book released this September: 50

From "Findings":

• "Columbus may have caused the Little Ice Age." 
• "Bolder bluegill sunfish are likelier to be caught in open water, whereas shy ones are caught near the rocks."
• "Easily embarrassed humans, though not the morbidly ashamed, are seen as more trustworthy and are more often monogamous." 
• "Canadian psychologists  concluded that 'moral disengagemnt' leads to workplace rumor-mongering and collegial sabotage."
• "Psychopathic Canadian murderers, when describing their crimes, more frequently use conjunctions and employ the past tense than do their non-psychopathic counterparts." 
• "The nose smells what it expects." 
• "Extramarital affairs increase a man's risk of a broken penis."