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25 Amazing facts about world population.

9/21/2013

65 Comments

 
"Unlike plagues of the dark ages or contemporary diseases we do not understand, the modern plague of overpopulation is soluble by means we have discovered and with resources we possess. What is lacking is not sufficient knowledge of the solution but universal consciousness of the gravity of the problem and education of the billions who are its victim."

-Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 

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1.    There are over 7 billion people on earth now.

2.    108 billion people have ever lived on earth.

3.    6.4% of them – 7 billion – are alive now.

4.    In the year 1000 AD, the world population was only 400 million.  In 1750 AD, 750 years later, the population was 800 million.  By 1927 we had 2 billion people, 3 billion by 1960.  Then it took only 40 years – until the year 2000 – for the population to double to 6 billion.

5.    The 6th billion person was born in 1999, based on statistical measures.

6.    Standing side by side, the entire world’s population would fit into 500 square miles (1,300 square kilometers,) – less than the size of Los Angeles. 

7.    The average life expectancy is 80 years old for people in industrialized nations, 30 years more than a century ago.  Sub Saharan Africa has the lowest life expectancy, at 53 years.  The aggregate world average is 67.2 years. 

8.    About 50% of the world population is under 25 years old.  One in four people in the world are between 10 and 24 years old.

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9.    The average person on earth is a 28 year-old right-handed Han Chinese male.  There are 9 million people on earth who fit that description, more than any other.

10. The most common first name in the world is “Mohammed.”  “Mary,” or some variation like Maria, is the most common first name for women.  The most common surname is “Chang.”  

11. Every second there are 4.3 births and 1.8 deaths, for a net population gain of 2.5 people per second.

12. The recent population explosion is not because of increased birth rates, but decreases in death rates, with the help of medicine, agriculture yields, urbanization, technology, education, disease prevention, and less war.  

13. At this rate, the world’s population will double approximately every 40 years, to over 12 billion people by 2050.  

14. However, experts anticipate a slowing in birth rates to correspond more closely to death rates, leveling the world population closer to 9-12 billion.  Global population growth has already slowed to an annual rate of 1.35%, the lowest in decades.

15. 1/3 of the population growth in the world is due to incidental or unwanted pregnancies, often because there is no access to education or basic contraceptive planning.

16. Every 20 minutes, 3,000 more people are born into the world.  In the same time, another plant or animal becomes extinct (27,000 per year).

17. As of 2010, the countries with the highest populations are China with 1.3 billion, India with 1.2 billion, and the United States with 307 million.  Indonesia and Brazil are next with around 220 million people.  India is expected to surpass China in population within a few years.  

18. If Facebook were a country, it would be the 3rd most populous in the world, with 500 million citizens.

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19. The richest 20% of the world consume 86% of its goods, while the poorest 20% consume just 1.3%.

20. The population of the United States has increased 300% in the 20th century, but its consumption of raw materials increase 1,700%

21. In 1900 only 1 in 10 people lived in cities.  By 1994, 1 in every 2 people lived in a city.

22. More than 400 cities worldwide have a population of 1,000,000 or more.

23. In sub Saharan Africa, at least 55% of children under 5 years old have never been registered.  Around the globe, 50 million children each year have no official birth record or identity.   

24. Of the 40 poorest and hungriest nations on earth, 36 actually export food to richer countries.

25. More than 1 billion people in the world do not have enough food or safe drinking water.  

The world does not have a resource problem – there is enough food just in the ocean and plenty of clean energy sources to sustain us all.  The world has a problem with distribution of its resources due to poverty, war, greed, economic policy, transportation relying on fossil fuels, and over-consumption.

65 Comments

30 Tips to being a better racist on Twitter.

9/16/2013

40 Comments

 
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Racists, it’s your lucky day.  Not just because Nina Davuluri, a woman whose family is of Indian descent, won the Miss America pageant yesterday, leaving your razor-sharp mind to compose xenophobic tweets with wild impunity.  (Sorry, let me link the big words to Dictionary.com so you can look them up: Impunity.  Xenophobic.  Ok, we’re back on track.)  It’s not your lucky day just because of THAT, but because I’ve decided to help you become a better bigot via Twitter.

Frankly, your Twitter racism game is weak, judging by some of the examples I've seen.  You can do better, and your sloppy, ill-conceived tweets are letting down your pure-blooded brethren, leaving white hoods shaking in disappointment all over social media this morning.

So I promise that by following these constructive tips you’ll be a much better racist on Twitter, making your whole homogenous family proud (including your cousin who is also your sister.)

Here are 30 tips to being a better racist on Twitter:

1.    Tweeting “Go back to (insert country name here)” doesn’t really work when your family came over to this country in recent history, too.  Unless you’re Native American, maybe leave that one alone.   

2.    Don’t use cute emoticons when posting racist tweets - it just sends mixed messages, like smiley faces and napalm.

3.    Try to be original when using stereotypes in your tweets.  For instance, India = 7-11, or India = dot head is a little played out.  Maybe try a Slum Dog Millionaire reference?  Or that comedian from Parks and Recreation is pretty funny?

4.    Twitter only allows 140 characters, so just type “#White” instead of “#Merican,” because that’s what you really mean.  Saving those 2 characters will help you get RT’s.

5.    Tweeting that it’s dishonorable to anoint an Indian-American Miss America so close to 9-11 is absolutely correct, but only because if we waited a month the pageant could be held on Columbus Day – a REAL ‘Merican hero!

6.    America is a continent, not a country - in fact it has two continents!  Did you know there is a North America and a South America!?  That’s right, so what you really mean is “The United States.”  But to stick with the ‘Merica theme, we can start calling it: ’Nited States.

7.    A quick history lesson.  It went like this: the land we now know as the ‘Nited States was first home to Native Americans, Vikings, Eskimos, English, French, Spanish, Mexicans, and Pacific Islanders in recent history, and then we came and started squatting.  But let’s ignore all of that and just pretend we sprouted directly from this soil.

8.    If you’re called out for posting racist tweets, don’t ever apologize.  Ever.  And if you do, make sure you’re not sincere and certainly don’t learn anything from it.

9.    We’re having some geographic confusion, so please refer to a world map.  Note that India is not in Egypt, over 2,000 miles from Iraq, and has nothing at all to do with Indiana. 

10. Indians are not terrorists.  In fact, they are always on “our” side.  You probably got them confused with those OTHER brown people, who make up about 90% of the world. 

11. Al Qaeda is not a country.  And there is no “u” after the “q.”  I know, I know…they’re backwards. 

12. White people, please stop laying out in the sun and going to tanning booths.  It’s confusing the hell out of me.

13. I completely agree that Indian dancing has no place in our modern ‘Nited States.  We need more authentic Caucasian dances to class it up a bit, like Miley Cyrus twerking.

14. “They” are not taking our jobs.  You have a crappy job because you didn’t pay attention in school and you’re lazy.  So if you want a better job, go out and earn it the old fashion way: by murdering and exploiting less powerful brown people for material gain.

15. Did you know there are #White people in other countries around the world, like Russia, Canada, and even South Africa?  That will make it extremely confusing when a white Russian American, for example, wins the Miss America pageant, rendering all of our “anti-‘Merican” slander useless.  But we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.

16. When you call Asian people “PF Changs,” please keep in mind that it’s all white people eating there.  Those lettuce wraps are delicious!

17. The majority religion in India is Hinduism, not Muslim, but either way we don’t want “them” in our country, so let’s all pray for an end to religious freedom.

18. These damn incompetent, un American, immigrant, ethnic politicians are going to be the end of this country!  So please continue the outrage not to reelect Arnold Schwarzenegger.

19. The ‘Nited States does not have an official language, but don’t let that stop you from tweeting that everyone who lives here needs to speak English.

20. A tweet like “A brown-skinned Miss America?!!!  What’s next – people marrying three goats?!” might be a little bit of a leap.  Try to throw a gay marriage reference in there as a stepping stone, so we can better follow your logic.

21. Racists - you’re spending so much time tweeting about the damn Indian Arab terrorists, that you’ve completely forgotten about razzing the Jews, blacks, ‘MoSexuals, handicapped people, Japs, Democrats, draft dodgers, environmentalists, and people who drive hybrid cards.  Spread the hate a little – there’s plenty to go around.

22. Try not to tweet about homosexuals ruining our country and then go home and watch lesbian porn.  It still counts, even though it’s women. 

23. When someone accuses you of being a bigot, saying “But some of my best friends are brown-skinned Miss America contestants,” doesn’t really work. 

24. Black people and women – it’s especially awesome when you send racist tweets since you’re not that far from being on the receiving end of horrible discrimination, yourselves!  Well done! 

25. Please use proper English when composing hateful tweets.  For instance, “Dese people don’t even speaks English #WTF #FML #OMG #GoBackToYourMommasCuntry,” needs to go through the spell check at least once.

26. To add a little zest to your ignorant tweets, sprinkle in these words in any combination:  Osama, Obama, Yo Momma, Al Qaeda, Al Jazeera, Al Sharpton, Baghdad, Bag Head, Benghazi, Saddam, Saudi Arabia, and Susan Sarandon.

27. Whenever possible, add “We’re number 1!” to your tweets.  Number 1 at what, you ask?  Don’t worry about it – just put it in there.

28. Remember that we’re the greatest country in the world because we’re a melting pot of inclusion, so let’s keep as many people out as possible before they ruin that.

29. I agree that the term “racist” is totally overused, flung around with such reckless disregard that it’s been rendered meaningless.  The term ‘asshole’ works much better.

30. Maybe you shouldn’t tweet about your patri-racism at all, considering Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal is the majority shareholder in Twitter.  Oops.  We didn't see that one coming.


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40 Comments

27 Photos that changed our world.

9/12/2013

6 Comments

 
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"Tank Man" protester in Tienamen Square, Beijing China.  This 1989 photo by journalist Jeff Widener captures one lone, unidentified civilian protestor standing his ground in front of a column of tanks.  He was never seen again, but this image remains as the perfect symbol of human bravery in the face of the technological war machine.


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Vietnamese girl Kim Phuc and her family run for their lives after being struck by a  napalm bomb.  This photo was taken in 1972 by Vietnamese journalist Nick Ut while working alongside U.S. wartime journalists.  Kim survived and was re-identified many years later as a worldwide symbol of the horror or war and the power of forgiveness.  The pain and desperation depicted in this photo is credited as helping turn sentiment and ending the war.  


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Earthrise, taken from the moon on Christmas Eve of 1968, either by Frank Borman or Bill Anders of the Apollo 8 mission.  It was called “the most influential environmental photograph ever taken,” by adventure photographer Galen Rowell.  




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Photo of the first x-ray image.  In 1895 Willhelm Conrad Röntgen, professor of physics the University of Wurburg in Germany, discovered the process known as modern x-ray imaging.  He took this photo of his wife, Frau Röntgen's hand while she was still wearing her wedding ring.  Willhelm won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1901 for this discovery.



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A-bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan in 1945, as taken by the U.S. air force.  The mushroom cloud-producing nuclear bomb killed 80,000 people and forced the surrender of the Japanese military, ending WWII in the Pacific Theater.  


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This famous photo, taken in 1962 by Alan Stanley Tretick of Life magazine, depicts President John F Kennedy at work at the Resolute desk in the Oval Office of the White House, while his son, Jon Jr. plays underneath.  JFK Jr. was the first child born to an active President, but his father was assassinated less than a year after this photo was taken.  

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A plane hits the second tower, 9/11.  American Airlines flight 11 crashes into the North Tower of the World Trade Center the morning of September 11, 2001, confirming for a terrified public that the first airplane collision was not an accident, but a terrorist attack.

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The Wright Brothers first in flight, 1903.  On December 17 in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, two bicycle mechanic brothers changed history by going airborne for 12 seconds.  



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First man on the moon. Photo of Neil Armstrong, commander of the Apollo 11 mission as he becomes the first human to set foot on the moon on July 20, 1969.   

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How Life Begins, 1965.  First photographed embryo inside the human body, taken by Lennart Nilsson with the endescope.  It led to a firestorm of controversy over the origins of life and abortion.





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Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima, taken by Joe Rosenthal February 23, 1945.  5 U.S. Marines and a Navy corpsman raised the American flag atop Mount Suribachi during the battle of Iwo Jima in World War II.  



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Migrant Mother, 1936.  This photo of a 32-year old California farmworker, taken by Dorothea Lange, is considered to show the face of the Great Depression.  This mother of 7 children had just sold her tent and tire off her cars for food, as the whole family was living on foraged vegetables and wild birds.  





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V-J Day in Times Square, August 14, 1945.  This famous photograph take by Alfred Eisenstaedt shows an American sailor, just returned home from the war, kissing a woman in a white dress on Victory over Japan Day.  

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Photo of African American student Elizabeth Eckford walking into Little Rock, Arkansas' Central High among fellow students screaming and harassing her in protest, only 4 years since the Supreme Court ruled against racial segregation in schools.    



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Buddhist monk sets himself on fire in protest, Vietnam.  In 1963, Thich Quang Duc, a Buddhist priest in Southern Vietnam, doused himself with gasoline and set himself on fire to protest the government's abuse and torture of priests.  He never made a move or uttered a sound as he burned to death.



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Civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his famous "I have a dream," speech on August 28, 1963 at the Washington Monument, calling for an end to racism in the U.S.

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"The Afghan Girl," a portrait of a 12-year old Afghan refugee living in Pakistan during the Soviet occupation, taken by Steve McCurry, appearing on the famous 1985 cover of National Geographic Magazine.  She was identified in 2002 as Sharbat Gula.  She was considered the face of struggle of refugees all over the world, and this photo was often called the "Afghan Mona Lisa."  






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DNA has been depicted with renderings and images nice 1953, when James Watson and Francis Crick first mapped DNA's famous double helix formation.  But not until very recently has technology allowed is to take an actual photo of DNA, this image, thanks to Enzo di Fabrizio, a researcher at the University of Genoa in Italy.   
 Enzo di Fabrizio, a researcher at the University of Genoa, Italy.  He found a way to photograph strands of DNA through an electron microscope.  

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Albert Einstein's humor, portrayed by this candid shot by UPI photographer Arthur Sasse on March 14, 1951.  There was a celebration for Einstein's 72nd birthday at the Princeton Club.  After a night of celebration with friends (and many beverages) Einstein was frustrated by the constant barrage of photographers, so when asked to smile he stuck out his tongue.  He liked the photo so much he sent them out as Christmas cards.


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The Cuban Missile Crisis comes to a heated standoff in the United Nations session, October 22, 1962.  In this photo U.S. ambassador Adlai Stevenson points to a photo of Soviet missile sites in Cuba, offering incontrovertible proof that they existed.  The U.S. and Soviet Union narrowly avoided a full scale nuclear war.






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The Vietnam war was the first military action in U.S. history where journalists had direct access to soldiers and combat, often traveling around with soldiers and killed in action, themselves.  The results was shocking images like this, taken by Eddie Adams February 1, 1968 when a police captain summarily executes a captured VietCong soldier on the street by shooting him in the head.  The photo made the front page of the New York Times, and created an outrage against the senselessness of the war that sparked protests.  After Vietnam, journalists were placed on restrictions where they could go and what they could photograph in combat.

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Vulture waiting for starving boy to die, Sudan, 1994.  This photograph by Kevin Carter captured a toddler succumbing to famine and near death, summarizing the horror and helplessness in Sub Saharan Africa as the world watched.  This photo won the Pulitizer Price but the burden of witness was too much for Carter, who committed suicide 3 months later. 




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West Berliners start tearing down the The Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, signifying the end of Soviet Bloc in Europe and soon the fall of communism.  The wall, also called the Iron Curtain, divided free West Germany from oppressed East Germany for 28 years, since August 13, 1961.

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The Beatles' Abbey Road album cover, 1969.  This iconic image of the band crossing Abbey Road in London would guild their 11th studio album, and last recording before disbanding in 1970, the end of the British Invasion.  The album, their top-selling ever, was met with critical acclaim and swirled in controversy, some people theorizing that it was a big staged metaphor for Paul McCartney's death.   

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Mahatma Ghandi taken in 1946.  Magaret Bourke-White took the photo of the 76 year old peace activist and father of non-violent passive resistance as he worked by a spinning wheel.  He was assassinated only hours later.  

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A 1977 advertisement for the Apple II personal computer, which revolutionized the concept of aesthetics and ease of use in computers that sparked the personal computing phenomenon.  These innovations in computing changed our world by ushering in the dawn of the Digital Age.

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MTV, Music Television's first on-screen logo, signifying a musical renaissance in which culture and art would drive the innovation of technology, not the other way around.  

6 Comments

Is Costa Rica in your future? Required reading for expats, vacationers, and backpackers.

9/11/2013

1 Comment

 
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Costa Rica is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world, with 60 million foreign visitors each year.  It's reputation as an eco paradise and beach lover's dream are well deserved, in the land with no army where the national saying is "pura vida," or pure life.  However, just like any place, there are challenging facets to life in Costa Rica, economic and cultural realities that are essential to navigate for anyone spending more than a week there.  

Since writing South of Normal, my nonfiction account of the wild, crazy, and immensely beautiful year I live in Tamarindo, Costa Rica, I get emails, Tweets, and Facebook messages from people all over the world.  The one thing in common is that they are thinking of moving down to Costa Rica, or at least going there for a nice sunny vacation, and would love some inside information.  So I've put together a compilation of the articles and blogs I've written about heading down to Costa Rica.  Most of these are from the Huffington Post Travel or my own blog, and in their entirety I think will really help folks in their transition to life in paradise.  Feel free to drop me a line if you have other questions or want to share your adventure! 

Email hi@NormSchriever.com   
Twitter @NormSchriever 

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Thinking of Moving to Costa Rica? 5 Questions and Answers You NEED to Know!

10 Secrets to Booking Cheap Airfare to Costa Rica.

Your Life in a Backpack; What to Pack For 6 Months Traveling Abroad.

Crazy Facts About Costa Rica.

10 Things to Consider Before You Move to a Foreign Country.

10 Tips to Stay Safe While Traveling Abroad.

The Border You've Never Heard About.

Fun and Facts About Costa Rica.

It's a Small World. 

25 Ways You Know You're in an Awesome Third World Country, Once Again.

45 Jobs You Can do From The Beach.

Virtual Jobs You Can do From The Beach, Part 2.

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Work From The Beach; an Interview With Elance.com CMO Rich Pearson.

Blue, Green, Breathe.  A bonus chapter from South of Normal.

TamaRumors.

I Was Born in The U.S., Yet I Did Nothing to Deserve That.

Finally, give a read to the Amazon.com best selling book, South of Normal, which has been called essential reading for any Costa Rican expat or vacationer!

1 Comment

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    Norm Schriever

    Norm Schriever is a best-selling author, expat, cultural mad scientist, and enemy of the comfort zone. He travels the globe, telling the stories of the people he finds, and hopes to make the world a little bit better place with his words.   

    Norm is a professional blogger, digital marketer for smart brands around the world,  and writes for the Huffington Post, Hotels.com, and others.

    Check out South of Normal his Amazon.com best-selling book about life as an expat in Tamarindo, Costa Rica.

    Cambodia's School of Hope explores education and empowerment in impoverished Cambodia, with 100% of sales going to that school.

    The Book Marketing Bible provides 99 essential strategies for authors and marketers.

    Pushups in the Prayer Room, is a wild, irreverent memoir about a year backpacking around the world.  

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