I have a habit of collecting weird or interesting facts. There is so much knowledge out there, about so many subjects, it's mind boggling. Here are 10 facts I've come across that are strange, unexpected, and a bit unsettling.
1. The world population has (more than) doubled since 1960.
Population facts are always a little unsettling. I love people, don't get me wrong, but there are just way too many of us. And it's not stopping. In 1960 there were approximately 3 billion people on the planet. That was 50 short years ago, and now it's over 7 billion. That is quite the boom on a planet with finite resources and habitable space, and it shows no signs of slowing down.
2. 1 in 5 women who masturbate don't wash their hands afterwards.
Think of all those hands you shook. I'm not a germaphobe by any means, but that's just nasty.
3. 58% of the US adult population never reads another book after high school.
As an avid reader, this bums me out a little. Books are awesome, and just because school is over for some people doesn't mean the quest for learning should stop. That should never stop. Yes, you can learn an amazing amount from reading online articles, watching documentaries, having intellectual discussions...DOING things. But there is really nothing like the carefully written, edited, and verified information inside of so many books. Hell, even a good fiction story does amazing things for keeping one's vocabulary sharp.
4. CPR only works 5-10% of the time.
In some cities, where immediate help may take a bit longer than usual to get there, or a bystander attempts CPR the success rate drops to a mere 1%. From the wiki on CPR: "Estimates vary, but many organizations stress that CPR does not "bring anyone back," it simply preserves the body for defibrillation and advanced life support." Oh, and it also breaks peoples ribs, when done properly. Yikes.
5. In India, a woman is raped every 20 minutes.
A combination of factors, like the preference for sons and female infanticide (leading to a skewed male to female ratio) and lenient penalties for sex offenders has lead to a huge increase in rape in India. This statistic is from the National Crime Records Bureau.
6. Since the 1950s, around 90% of the large predatory fish in the ocean are gone.
FMAP scientists claim that up to 90% of all large predatory fish such as cod, sharks, halibut, grouper, tuna, swordfish, and marlin have been depleted. Industrialized fisheries, FTL (for the lose).
7. There are 35-50 active serial killers in the United States at any given moment.
What makes my skin crawl the most about this is how normal and nice people always say that they seem. I actually had a first-hand experience with this, back in 2010 I was a bartender at a well known casino in Gardena, Ca. One of our semi-regulars there ended up on the news, tied to the rape and murders of multiple women. It's crazy, you really never know, but there are monsters among us...sometimes a lot closer than we think.
8. 50% of healthcare dollars in the US are spent on the last 6 months of life.
Pretty self explanatory, but food for thought.
9. In the US, there's an average of 217 million white blood cells per liter of cow milk.
Those white blood cells come from the pus of the infected teats of the cows.Not to mention, humans are the only animals that drinks ANOTHER mammals breast (teat?) milk, and also the only mammals to drink milk well into adulthood.
10. 5 to 10 percent of all people who ever walked this earth, are alive right now.
The sheer volume of us is mind boggling. The /Homo/ genus has been around for 2.5 million years...and the earliest remains for homo sapiens are around 150,000 years old. That's a huge span of time, yet 5-10% of people to EVER exsist are alive right now, and you're one of them. Life is crazy.
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