I have definitely wasted some time playing around with this: a website that uses side-by-side Google Maps to show a locations’s antipodal point on Earth.
Apparently I was never in any danger of digging my way to China as a young boy. To do that, I would have had to start in Argentina.
This report from CareerCast ranks 200 jobs from best to worst:
http://www.careercast.com/jobs-rated/2011-ranking-200-jobs-best-worst
Jobs were analyzed based on five factors: Environment, Income, Outlook, Stress, and Physical Demands.
As is so often the case in these job-ranking surveys, math-based careers fared very well: coming in at #2 is Mathematician (whatever that means), #3 is Actuary (always near the top of these lists), and at #4 is Statistician (great if you like stats, I suppose).
I guess Roustabout is not as much fun as it sounds, as it placed 200th in the rankings. And I’ve met a lot of happy, successful Taxi Drivers (#192) in my life.
It’s not surprising to see Teacher in the #100 spot, with its high stress-to-income ratio. But Surgeon right behind at #101? According to the results, it’s about 3 times as stressful but about 7 times the pay.
Might be worthwhile to take a closer look at the methodology, which can be found here.
Prior to seeing this sign, I had no idea Chicken McNuggets could ever be purchased in quantities greater than 20.
Furthermore, at $10.99, this is the lowest price-per-nugget I have ever seen, coming in at just around 22 cents per McNugget. That’s over 10% cheaper than the limited-time 4-McNuggets-for-a-dollar special!
Since this offer is available only in Puerto Rico, a serious price analysis would have to include some kind of cost-of-living / value-of-the-dollar comparison.
If I recall correctly, the Big Mac was priced about the same as in the U.S.: that’s probably a good enough benchmark, isn’t it? I’m sure there’s a Big Mac-index in somebody’s international economics book.
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This is a nice comment-thread and poll on Quora responding to the question “What is the most beautiful equation?”
http://www.quora.com/Mathematics/What-is-the-most-beautiful-equation
No surprise to see Euler’s Identity on top with a whopping 350 votes.
There are fun entries all throughout thread, and I definitely learned a few things through perusing. And I guess I can forgive the participants for including some inequalities on the list.
This is a very interesting report from the business consulting firm McKinsey about why top students in U.S. colleges don’t want to become teachers.
For example, of the 1500 students surveyed (all of whom were considered top-third in their schools), only 33 percent thought that they could support a family with this career. And only 37 percent said that people in this job are considered “successful”.
It’s small consolation that two-thirds felt that they, and their families, would be proud to tell people that they were teachers.