Well, actually it's not. But the great Economist Pocket World in Figures is here. The PWF is worth the cost of an Economist subscription all by itself. It's like walking around with the CIA World Fact Book in your pocket.
[20 minute break as I, while looking for statistics on crime (the US has the largest prison population while not even showing up on the list of the most number of crimes per population), get sidetracked by other fascinating tidbits.]
Did you know, for example, that at $20 billion, the US is the largest bilateral and multilateral donor of international aid? Or that we donate twice as much as number 2 Japan? That we're the world's largest producer of energy? That we use less energy, per head, than Canada? That we have both the world's longest road network and the world's longest rail network? That we ship more freight by rail than any other nation? That the US and Belgium, at 99.6, are tied for the largest number of color TV's per 100 households? That there are 10 countries (topped by Luxembourg at 138) with more than 100 cell phones per 100 population? That the median age in Japan is 43 and in Uganda is 15? That Latvia has the lowest birthrate in the world and also the smallest number of men (84) for every hundred women? (Except for Losotho, the bottom 8 countries in terms of the number of men for every 100 women are all in eastern Europe.)
I could go on all day. In fact, I think I will.
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I haven't seen anyone* dispute that the U.S. provides the most foreign aid, in gross terms; most of the criticism that I've seen centers around the fact that, as a percentage of GNP, America isn't a particularly generous donor compared to the likes of Canada and New Zealand, and also that the American "foreign aid" stats are padded by military aid to Egypt and Israel, among others.
* Nobody rational, I should say.
Sorry, Peter, but "reason" and "explanations" and "logic" are the oppressive tools of the patriarchy.
Oro: At .17% of GDP we're still in 23rd place and tied with Japan. Of course, the aid number ignores the really useful things we do, like enforce the freedom of the seas.
Now that I'm flying again, you have reminded me it is time to restart my Economist subscription.
Short of reading material up there in the cockpit, are we?
These new planes fly themselves. I thin that they mostly play X-Box in the cockpit.
X-box and stewardesses - it's a pilot's life for me.
Joe:
At my previous airline, reading was prohibited on the flight deck, so I didn't do it (some guys did, though), in part because the plane I flew, the DC-9, required nearly continuous attention.
My current company does not say a word on the subject, and the plane I fly now is very capable of taking care of itself, so I may succumb to the temptation (but only if the Capt starts reading first).
But given that I have to do something during layovers (I'm in nearing the end of 36 hours in Newark), and don't care to watch TV, I have plenty of time to read the Economist. And that is ignoring the not infrequent deadhead legs (between Memphis and Anchorage on either side of this trip, for example), the upcoming commutes between Detroit and Anchorage, and the dozen or so days off per month.
WRT to stewardesses, for reasons completely clear to them, but obscure to me, they uniformly and resolutely failed to pay me any mind whatsoever. Hauling boxes is far less abusive to the ego.
For what its worth, I have a 0200 pickup for a 0330 takeoff, followed by seven hours en route to Anchorage, most over astonishingly empty swaths of Canada.
The Aurora Borealis was spectacular on the way to Newark, BTW.
Not everyone finds the book as fascinating as we do.
one, two, three
Aaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwhhhhhh.
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