Here are some fun turkey stats, in honor of the meal many of us are having today.  And courtesy of the USDA and the National Turkey Federation (who knew there was such a thing?).  Who knew we ate 18 lbs of turkey per person last year?  Actually, I’m not surprised because I love turkey.  Or that the US raised 271 million turkeys last year, 49 million of which were produced in Minnesota?  Or that about 30% of the turkey we eat is during the holidays?

I hope you have a great Thanksgiving!

(as usual, select the image to see it full-size)

Turkey Stats for Thanksgiving

UPDATE 11/7/2008: The Federal Election Commission has lowered it’s preliminary estimate of people who voted in the 2008 election to 122,253,622.  That’s only 61.9% of all eligible voters, which hasn’t been bested since 1964 (Lyndon Johnson over Barry Goldwater).  But the numbers remain preliminary, so I’ll revisit everything when it is finalized.  Thanks!  –frets

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Yesterday’s election drew voters out in record numbers, if you couldn’t tell by the lines some of you experienced at your polling places.  I voted early and had to wait about 40 minutes, which isn’t so bad…but I’m not in a swing state!

Based on preliminary results, 148,218,161 million people voted.  That’s 64.1% of all eligible voters.  It may not seem like much, but that’s one for the record books, especially in these times.  That percentage has not been exceeded in our lifetime (unless you’re a hundred years old)!  You have to go back to the election of 1908 to beat it!  Back then, William Howard Taft (R-Ohio) beat William Jennings Bryan (D-Nebraska) with 321 electoral votes, and 65.4% of eligible voters cast a ballot.  Incidentally, the all-time record goes to the hotly-contested race between Rutherford B. Hayes (R-Ohio) and Samuel J. Tilden (D-New York).  Hayes eeked out a 1-point electoral victory, and 81.8% of eligible voters cast a ballot!  Talk about long lines!

Here’s a look at the voter turnout since 1960 (select the image for full-size):  Read the rest of this entry »

I woke up this morning to the joyful sound of my 3 kids sorting and trading their Halloween loot.  They had meticulously sorted their candy by type (even my 6 year-old), and gave me the idea for what you see here.  We talked about the various ways we could analyze this “data,” and the kids were pretty into it.  Of course, now that I’ve been banging away at Excel for a couple of hours, they’re nowhere to be found… Read the rest of this entry »