I fenced when I was in college. It was fun, but I wasn't very good at it. Like any other fighting sport, it takes a lot of practice to get really good, and there's a big difference between expert and average. Sometimes we would go two or three against the top fencer in our group. We would rarely win. That gave me a visceral understanding of the old quote, "God made some men small, and some men large; but Colt made them all equal."
How odd - I zoom in and I still see it as 2041, but May 24 is also a Friday in 2013, and that would be the day after the I-5 bridge collapse ... Hmm, perhaps it's time for *me* to get glasses!
Why does the dateline seem to read "Friday, May 24, 2041"? That date actually *is* a Friday, but I suspect no time machines were involved. Also, the Santa Barbara News-Press doesn't have that article in its archive, and the picture seems to be of the I-5 bridge collapse over the Skagit River in Mount Vernon, Wash.
The lineup also caught my eye. After second viewing I was about to complain that there was a cut from the beginning to the actual trick. Then I realized that the text during the cut was "what you are *about* to has no edits", not "the entire video has no edits." Double sneaky!
The title says "land mammals", which excludes whales and dolphins. Most of the animals in the woods are not mammals. I included rats in my earlier analysis. There are several times more mice than rats, but they are smaller.
There are under 100 million kangaroo. At under 20 kg each, that gives at most 2 squares. There are as many sheep in Australia as kangaroo.
If you do a mouseover, Randall points out that bacteria overwhelm us by mass by 1000-fold, even excluding the several pounds of bacteria in each of us. Speaking of ants, there are many times more ants by mass than humans. For some more definite numbers, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomass_%28ecology%29 . There's also grasses, trees, and corals in the ecosystem, if one wanted to include all species.
There are 4 billion tons of humans that can fit in a cubic mile, if mushed together. That picture shows that there's only 358 million tons of humans, so yet, we easily fit into that cube. But describing the size of a cube is little different than giving the total mass. The raccoon cube, for example, would be a lot smaller.
You are free to feel skeptical. It's best to back up that skepticism with numbers. The numbers I've been able to find back up Randall's chart. A more complete chart, which included all species, would need to include the millions of acres of foodcrops.
No. I was mostly enjoying my terminology. Researching now, Wikipedia says "In France and Italy, sashes, featuring the national flag tricolours and worn on the right shoulder, are used by public authorities and local officials", and another site says "Most are worn from the right shoulder to the left hip, but there are exceptions. You will note above that the Order of the Seraphim and the Order of the Elephant have nearly identical light blue sashes; the most obvious difference is that they are worn in different directions."
My attempts at checking the numbers suggests that Randall is right.
One site says there are about 30 million deer in the US. Assuming they weigh about 40 kg each, that's 1 square. (Adult whitetail are heavier. I'm trying to include the young.) Another site says there are 15 million roe deer in Europe, but they are about 20kg each. Deer certainly count for at least 2 squares on the chart, and likely 4 or 5, but not much more.
There are some four billion rats in the world. At 0.5 kg each that would be 2 squares. I haven't found a good count of the number of raccoons in the world. Most of the state and province reports I found report around 1 million, so I'll say 100 million at the upper bound. At 5kg each that's 1/2 a square. In any case, there are more dogs and cats than raccoons.
I'm an American living overseas. These sound so very true.
In South Africa I was told that all Americans wear sneakers ("trainers", above), wear a baseball cap, and carry a water bottle. I mentioned this to my sister. She asked "how else do you stay hydrated?".
In Sweden I talked about how I lived in Santa Fe, which is "an hour north of Albuquerque." Several commented about how I, like other Americans, use time instead of distance. Also, I told them about how when I first started coming to Sweden I had to wear my best clothes so I wouldn't feel out of place. I got confused looks. "But Sweden has a rather casual workplace dress style." I replied "in my previous jobs, the dress style was 'no holes in the T-shirts'" and that I only had a couple of button-down shirts.
Someone else commented about Americans wearing North Face jackets. Outdoor gear is a good predictor, though not perfect. Germans love their Jack Wolfskin. French wear Quechua or Mammut. Swedes wear Fjällräven or Haglöfs. And Americans wear North Face.
Once upon a time the people of Generation X were called "slackers." We had no direction in life, felt disenfranchised, and went from one dead-end job to the next. Copeland wrote a book about us, and Kevin Smith made Clerks about us. Our music wasn't as good as the hippie generation, and of course the parents of the hippies are now known as the Greatest Generation.
Once upon a time the youth of the 1960s were called hippies. "Turn on, tune in, drop out" was the mantra of the day. They joined communes, did drugs, and went to mass marches. They only thought of today, and never tomorrow. People went on TV and wrote long editorials about the death of American culture. It was all Dr. Spock's fault for encouraging permissiveness and an expectation of instant gratification.
Once upon a time the youth were called greasers ... beatniks ... flappers ... the list goes on.
So to the Millennials, welcome to the club. On behalf of history, I apologize. Promise me that in 30 years you won't write the same stories about the next generation?
There are under 100 million kangaroo. At under 20 kg each, that gives at most 2 squares. There are as many sheep in Australia as kangaroo.
If you do a mouseover, Randall points out that bacteria overwhelm us by mass by 1000-fold, even excluding the several pounds of bacteria in each of us. Speaking of ants, there are many times more ants by mass than humans. For some more definite numbers, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomass_%28ecology%29 . There's also grasses, trees, and corals in the ecosystem, if one wanted to include all species.
There are 4 billion tons of humans that can fit in a cubic mile, if mushed together. That picture shows that there's only 358 million tons of humans, so yet, we easily fit into that cube. But describing the size of a cube is little different than giving the total mass. The raccoon cube, for example, would be a lot smaller.
You are free to feel skeptical. It's best to back up that skepticism with numbers. The numbers I've been able to find back up Randall's chart. A more complete chart, which included all species, would need to include the millions of acres of foodcrops.
One site says there are about 30 million deer in the US. Assuming they weigh about 40 kg each, that's 1 square. (Adult whitetail are heavier. I'm trying to include the young.) Another site says there are 15 million roe deer in Europe, but they are about 20kg each. Deer certainly count for at least 2 squares on the chart, and likely 4 or 5, but not much more.
There are some four billion rats in the world. At 0.5 kg each that would be 2 squares. I haven't found a good count of the number of raccoons in the world. Most of the state and province reports I found report around 1 million, so I'll say 100 million at the upper bound. At 5kg each that's 1/2 a square. In any case, there are more dogs and cats than raccoons.
In South Africa I was told that all Americans wear sneakers ("trainers", above), wear a baseball cap, and carry a water bottle. I mentioned this to my sister. She asked "how else do you stay hydrated?".
In Sweden I talked about how I lived in Santa Fe, which is "an hour north of Albuquerque." Several commented about how I, like other Americans, use time instead of distance. Also, I told them about how when I first started coming to Sweden I had to wear my best clothes so I wouldn't feel out of place. I got confused looks. "But Sweden has a rather casual workplace dress style." I replied "in my previous jobs, the dress style was 'no holes in the T-shirts'" and that I only had a couple of button-down shirts.
Someone else commented about Americans wearing North Face jackets. Outdoor gear is a good predictor, though not perfect. Germans love their Jack Wolfskin. French wear Quechua or Mammut. Swedes wear Fjällräven or Haglöfs. And Americans wear North Face.
Once upon a time the youth of the 1960s were called hippies. "Turn on, tune in, drop out" was the mantra of the day. They joined communes, did drugs, and went to mass marches. They only thought of today, and never tomorrow. People went on TV and wrote long editorials about the death of American culture. It was all Dr. Spock's fault for encouraging permissiveness and an expectation of instant gratification.
Once upon a time the youth were called greasers ... beatniks ... flappers ... the list goes on.
So to the Millennials, welcome to the club. On behalf of history, I apologize. Promise me that in 30 years you won't write the same stories about the next generation?