2007 U.S. GDP in Pie-Vision!

Five days a week (or more), millions of Americans leave their homes to go to “work”.  What does it all add up to?  Gross Domestic Product, the sum of all final goods and services.

Below, we have the United States’ $14.1 trillion GDP from 2007, which means you are also looking at the output from the largest economy on Earth that year.

(click image to explore – (it’s a large file, so give it a second))

What do you see?  For those game to squeeze their mind grapes, please put any thoughts or questions in the comments to guide future research.  This is only the beginning of digging into GDP…

Conway’s Game of Life

The Game of Life is a cellular automaton where rules govern the next state of the grid based on the current configuration.

  • Underpopulation – A living cell with less than 2 neighbors dies.
  • Overpopulation – A living cell with more than 3 neighbors dies.
  • Balance – A living cell with 2 or 3 neighbors survives.
  • Reproduction – A dead cell with more than 2 neighbors comes alive.

Here’s a sample of the fun to be had…

(click to play)

The Import/Export feature allows you to load and save different setups.  Post your own in the comments!

[sixfoottallrabbit]

$22,100,000,000

From Water.org

Yeah, you’re right, if aliens visited us, this would be one of the countless embarrassments humanity would have to endure.  (Taking ACM’s assumption that the aliens’ first question will be, “What are you people doing?!”)

If 884 million people lack access to safe water and it costs $25 to provide one of these people water for life*, the total price tag for taking care of the problem is $22.1 billion.

Is that a lot of money or a little?  As with everything else, it depends.  Considering Water.org averaged $4M in program spending the last two years and that adding in 4 more top-rated water charities doesn’t get us up to $20M, $22.1B is a daunting sum.  On the other hand, in the United States we spend over $50B a year on footwear.

If 4.5% of the world’s population can spend that on shoes, then the 87% of people on the planet with clean water should have no trouble in getting that figure up to 100%.  The only question is how.  Ape Con Myth will continue to explore the subject.

For now though, here’s five 4-star-rated water charities according to Charity Navigator: Water.org, Water for People, Water Missions International, WaterAid America, and Lifewater International.  Please note, however, that Givewell evaluated all five and currently does not recommend any water charities, though Water.org* got their stand-out nod.

For more information on the global water situation, visit UN-Water.

Happy Sad World Water Day!.

[Related Posts at 00093 – Water]

Which Reality Do You Subscribe To?

What do Americans think about the union battle going on in Wisconsin?  …  What do Americans know about public sector unions might be a better question, but for now let’s take a look at the polls and how they are being dished out.

The New York Times headline for the New York Times/CBS News Poll:NYTimesheadline

“Americans oppose weakening the bargaining rights of public employee unions by a margin of nearly two to one: 60 percent to 33 percent.”

Gawker’s headline for the same poll:Gawkerheadline… That seems reasonable.

The USA Today headline for the USA Today/Gallup Poll:
USAtodayheadline“The poll found 61% would oppose a law in their state similar to such a proposal in Wisconsin, compared with 33% who would favor such a law”

Daily Kos’ headline for USA Today/Gallup Poll:
DailyKosheadlineOverwhelming?  …  USA Today might not completely agree, since they also ran the following headline for the same poll:
USAtodayheadline2

The Pew Research Center headline for the Pew Research Center poll:
Pewheadline“Roughly four-in-ten (42%) say they side more with the public employee unions, while 31% say they side more with the governor, Scott Walker”

CNN’s headline for the Pew poll:
CNNheadline

The Zogby International headline for the Zogby poll:
Zogbyheadline“Two-thirds of likely voters agree that state legislatures have the authority to cut state employee salaries and 52% agree they can void collective bargaining agreements to reduce spending.”

Do state legislatures have the authority to cut and void?  Did they mean to ask a state government expert that question?  And if a survey respondent thinks they do have the authority, does it follow that they support anything?  Newsmax thinks so:
And finally, the Rasmussen Reports headline for the Rasmussen Reports poll:
“A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 48% of Likely U.S. Voters agree more with the Republican governor in his dispute with union workers.”

The National Review headline for the Rasmussen poll leaves the question open:
Unfortunately the questions don’t stop there.  While it makes sense that another polling organization might question a rival’s methods, as the New York Times blog Five Thirty Eight did:
NYTimes538headline… they are not alone in second-guessing Rasmussen.  Media Matters has compiled a list of media outlets who have run with it anyway:
MediaMattersheadlineOf course, with Google News showing over 5,000 articles related to the mess in Wisconsin, this compilation could take innumerable shapes itself.  Grains of salt should be taken everywhere.

In the end, it all comes back to you and the reality you subscribe to…

[All headlines link to the original articles.]

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