Dirac Angestun Gesept

This BBC list is a compilation from their weekly “10 Things We Didn’t Know This Time Last Week”. There are some amusing items on the list, and I for one can use amusing right now.

“24. Germany has an 18-year-old MP - Julia Bonk, a member of the Saxony legislature. Her name is not funny in German.”

“44. Until 3 September 2004, the fastest bus in London was an old fashioned red double decker, registration number ALD 971B. Unlike other buses, according to reports, this one did not have a speed regulator and so could go above 30mph.”

“63. Just one in a hundred workers goes to the pub for their lunch, according to a study. The same proportion spend lunch having sex.” Presumably not the same people, though.

The often insightful Lis Riba points out a useful way to get perspective on the still-increasing death toll from the tsunami: compare it to the population of US cities.

The latest number I’ve heard is “over 127,000″, which puts it up there with Rancho Cucamonga, CA (127,743), and rapidly approaching Sunnyvale (131,760) or Pasadena (133,936). Worse, that’s the immediate toll; disease and such can still make things much worse.

Another perspective: NYC (not the metro area) has a population of about 8 million, and lost about 3,000 on September 11, 2001. Sweden has a population of 9 million, and 3500 Swedes are missing in the areas hit. CNN says “Sweden’s expected loss of life proportionately matches that of Indonesia, and is exceeded only by Sri Lanka.”