The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

Dec 11, 2007 21:58

The good:
Tor Books announces that Brian Sanderson will complete the late Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" series.

The bad:


The ugly (courtesy of sariel_t, who isn't):
The next time you hear a politician use the word "billion," think about how s/he is spending your tax money.

A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but one advertising agency did a good job of putting that figure into some perspective in one of its releases.

A. A billion seconds ago it was 1959.
B. A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.
C. A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.
D. A billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet.
E. A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate our government is spending it.

Here’s another way to think about it:

Louisiana Senator, Mary Landrieu (D), is presently asking the Congress for $250 BILLION to rebuild New Orleans. Interesting number, what does it mean?

A. Well, if you are one of 484,674 residents of New Orleans (every man, woman, child), you each get $516,528.
B. Or, if you have one of the 188,251 homes in New Orleans, your home gets $1,329,787.
C. Or, if you are a family of four, your family gets $2,066,012.

It would seem there are no good calculators to be had in D.C.

books, humor, billions, political

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