Category: Statistics

The Cinematic Films With the Least and the Most Dialog

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There are a myriad of films which are famous in large part due to the cast speaking virtually no dialog at any point throughout the film’s runtime. In opposition to this, other films and film franchisees have become renowned for the inverse reason, dialog heavy films characterized by dense character exchanges and storylines driven by dynamic characters and expressive speech. In terms of films with casts who are rather quiet, All Is Lost created in 2013 with Robert Redford stranded at sea had a script that was a mere 31 pages in length with almost no spoken lines, WALL·E, a children’s animated film from 2008 featured 89 lines of dialog (51 by machines and 38 by humans) throughout the entirety of its screen time, 2001: A Space Odyssey, released in 1968, relied heavily upon silence to create dramatic tension, and finally Moebius, produced in 2013, contained no dialog whatsoever. In direct contrast to this and on the other side of that same spectrum, dialog heavy films exist in parallel, with the example of Casino, from 1995 which was extremely dialog heavy with a script of approximately 40,000 words, which is nearly double the average script length, with additional examples available as well (e.g. Dogma from 1999 with a 148 page script, A Few Good Men from 1992 with a 162 page script, John Fitzgerald Kennedy (JFK) from 1991 with a 183 page script etc.). This contrast demonstrates the principle that cinema can thrive in both environments of near silence with only body language, facial expressions, and set and character visuals to carry the story, as well as in rapid fire, constantly evolving, dialog heavy scenarios in which the script becomes the most important piece (or character) of the film

The Number of Gifts Santa Claus and the Elves Must Build and Deliver Each Christmas Eve

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Assuming Santa Claus delivers at least 1 gift to each child worldwide, this would equate to 2,100,000,000 (2.1 billion) gifts. With an average of 2.5 children per household worldwide, Claus would have to visit 840,000,000 (840 million) homes to accomplish this task. To finish this job in 24 hours (12 for each side of the world), Claus would need to visit 35,000,000 (35 million) homes per hour which would be 580,000 per minute, or nearly 10,000 every second! Because there are so many homes and so very many children, the elves of the North Pole face an equally grueling pace. Assuming each child receives 1 toy, and the build time is spread across 364 days, these elves would need to craft approximately 5,750,000 (5.75 million) toys per day. This would mean 240,000 toys per hour, 4,000 per minute, or nearly 70 every second without a work break for any of them. If the North Pole were to employ 100 elves, each would need to make 0.7 toys per second; and with a large company of 1000 elves, this value drops to 1 toy every 14 seconds which is more manageable; however with a massive company of 10,000 elves, each would only need to craft 1 toy every 2.5 minutes which would be much more probable for a workforce to achieve; if however the North Pole were capable of managing a city sized work force of 100,000 elves, each elf would need only to craft a single toy every 24 minutes which is a pace that a human powered North Pole, theoretically could handle. With that being said, mythologically speaking elves are immortal, or at the very least ageless, and they do possess arcane magic and clandestine knowledge which must be kept in mind when calculating what is theoretically possible

The Mathematical Probability of Miracles

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Many would argue that miracles have a 1:1,000,000 (1 to 1 million) ratio, and others whom are more conservative would argue that miracles have a 1:1,000,000,000 (1 to 1 billion) ratio, meaning for every 1 miracle, 1,000,000,000 (1 billion) events occur without a miracle. 1 in 1,000,000,000 (1 billion) sounds astronomically high, as on the entire planet there are only 8,100,000,000 (8.1 billion) human beings, but if a person draws 6 cards from a standard deck of cards, whatever sequence they draw has a 1:14,000,000,000 (1 in 14 billion) chance of occurring. Because of this, one could argue that every hand of cards drawn is a miracle and not a random act of chance. This logic applies to all randomized items or numerical values (e.g. first 6 digits of a Social Insurance Number or last 6 digits of a phone number etc.). What humans refer to as a “miracle” is often merely a statistical anomaly, an event with low probability, but not impossibility, something which is guaranteed to occur given enough repetitions are made. The sheer volume of possible outcomes virtually guarantees that rare patterns will emerge eventually, not because they are miraculous, but because the mathematics demand it be so

How Credit Scores Work Within North America

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Credit is a complex issue, influenced not only by individual financial behavior but also by institutional frameworks, socioeconomic conditions, and evolving market dynamics that shape how credit is accessed, evaluated, and/or sustained. 35% of ones credit score is due to payment history; paying on time is crucial to having and maintaining a healthy credit score. 30% of ones credit score is due to what they owe, primarily in relation to how much credit they have and how much credit they owe (eg. allotted $25,000 and used $20,000). Going over 30% of ones allotted credit is a red flag for creditors and lowers ones score. 15% of ones credit score is due to the length of time in which the person has had some form of credit which is why it’s important to start and build up credit early in adult life. 10% of ones credit score is due to how many times credit was opened; multiple openings or inquiries in a short period may signal risk but repeated openings of new credit or repeated attempted openings of new credit shows that the person in question constantly requires more and more credit and is at a higher risk to not be able to pay back a loan. Finally, 10% of one’s credit score is due to what kind of credit they have. Having a balanced credit history of vehicle loans, student loans, mortgage loans, and credit card loans is more favorable than having only a single credit card loan all by itself as it shows the ability to manage diverse credit types

The Caribbean Village of Biological Males Born Without Male Genitalia

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There is a village in the Dominican Republic called Salinas, in which 1 in 90 of the people born are born as males, with testicles, but without a penis, because of misconstrued instructions at birth. In males, the gene on the Y chromosome, specifically the Sex Determining Region Y (SRY), instructs the gonads to become testicles. This leads to the creation of dihydrotestosterone which is a stronger version of testosterone. Dihydrotestosterone transforms the tubercle which all males and females have, into a penis. Females do not make dihydrotestosterone, therefore their gonads become ovaries, and the tubercle becomes a clitoris. Infants perceived as female at birth, due to a lack of dihydrotestosterone during fetal development, later develop a penis during puberty when testosterone triggers penile growth, as it does in typical male development. Those who lack the ability to create dihydrotestosterone, as is the case with those born as males but raised as females in the Caribbean village of Salinas, Dominican Republic where it is common, are technically male, but without a penis, a condition referred to as “5 alpha reductase deficiency”. This condition is quite well accepted in this part of the world and even has a term which is “guevedoce(s)”, (pronounced “guava-doh-chey”) which means “penis/testicles at 12” in Spanish. This condition whilst common in this region of the Caribbean, it is very rare in other parts of the world

The Fallacy of French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte Being Short in Stature

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Napoleon Bonaparte was not actually short in stature, in fact he was of average height. This misconception stems from paperwork being written about Bonaparte which states that he was 5’2″, written as 5 pieds 2 pouces within France during the early 19th century, but it was from a French town which used an antiquated unit of measurement referred to as the “French foot”, which classified the imperial measurement of 1′ as 13″ instead of the 12″ which is what 1′ is stated to be within the imperial measurement system. When accounting for this error in transcription, it would appear that Bonaparte was actually 5’7″ which during the last half of the 18th and beginning half of the 19th century when Bonaparte was alive, was considered average, or even slightly above average in regard to the stature of height. The fallacy of Bonaparte being short was exaggerated by English propaganda, particularly satirical cartoons which portrayed Bonaparte as small and temperamental, affixing this image to Bonaparte for centuries and into the modern day

The Largest Mass Extinction of Life Upon Earth

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There have been 5 mass extinctions throughout Earth’s tumultuous history. 99.9% of all species which have ever lived on Earth have gone extinct. 252,000,000 (252 million) years ago, Earth suddenly turned toxic to life. Nearly 96% of species worldwide, rapidly became extinct, a period referred to as the “Permian-Triassic Extinction Event”, and less often called the “Great Dying”. This mass extinction was caused by the eruption of super volcanos, leading to the land drying up, the ocean acidifying, every forest dying, and nearly all plant life perishing. Everything alive today is descended from the species which made it through this age

The 21st Century Conflict in Israel

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Since the 2006 Israeli democratic election, Gaza, Israel has been controlled by Hamas, a militant Islamic group considered terrorists by Israel and allied western governments. Since 2006, Gaza has experienced and endured a Palestinian civil war referred to as the “Fatah Hamas Conflict”, 3 conflicts between Hamas and Israel, 10 years of strict Hamas rule, and blockade by Israel and Egypt. Israelis and Palestinians have endured endless cycles of violence and political ideological change, with the latest large conflict lasting 7 weeks in 2014 killing 2000 people, 500 of them children, and decimating 18,000 homes

The Country Which Executes the Most Convicted Persons and the Method of Execution Used

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It is believed that China executes thousands of convicted persons each year, more than all other countries combined, as claimed by Amnesty International, due to the true value being closely guarded by the Chinese government. Typically Chinese executions are carried out with a single bullet to the back of the head/neck but intravenous poisons have also been used in recent decades

The Country With the Most Vegetarians Per Capita and the First Notation of Vegetarianism Within Western Literature

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The country with the most vegetarians per capita is India, with 39% of the country identifying as vegetarian and/or vegan, a value which equates to 276,000,000 (276 million) people. This is primarily due to the dominant religion within India which is Hinduism, a faith which 79.8% of the country subscribes to, and to a lesser extent, Sikhism, a faith which promotes vegetarianism and is subscribed to by 1.7% of the country. Mexico trails India for the second spot internationally with 19% of the country identifying as vegetarian and Brazil takes the third spot with 14% having adopted this diet. The first time vegetarianism is mentioned within recorded western history is by the Ancient Greek mathematician Pythagoras around 500 BC, however it is unclear if this is the first recorded text worldwide