Major airlines are required by law to employ flight attendants for the safety and security of their passengers. Passenger safety is the flight attendant’s first priority. Seeing to the comforts and whims of passengers is a secondary priority for the the flight attendant. A challenging task, in the least, considering the needs of the 2 billion passengers – 800 million in United States airspace – the 2000 airlines transport in their 23 000 aircraft in 28 million flight departures to the 37 000 main airports every year.
Apart from just having to look their best all the time, flight attendant serve about a billion meals – 500 million of which are provided by Gate Gourmet and LSG SkyChefs – to the cramped passengers (coach seats are 19 inches wide, about the same as your standard office chair – the seat in a cheap car is 22 inches wide). No need to serve meals on short flights (almost 60% of flights are domestic travel), in case you’ve been wondering about the other billion passengers. Read more
We bid a hearty welcome to the millions of new earthlings who arrive in August, the month with the highest birth rate. You are the proud results of a joyous Christmas season… even if your parents did not put up Christmas trees.
19.5% of new August babies are born in India and 11.6% in China, respectively 6 and 4 times more than in the United States: approximately 2.2 million and 1.3 million vs 0.4 million. Which means two babies are born every second in India and China vs a new baby every 8 seconds in the US. World-wide, 5 beautiful new babies are born every second.
The global fertility rate is 2.61 while the United States has a fertility rate of 2.05 children born per woman. One in every 31 new cuddly earthlings born globally is born in the US, thus 3% of all new births. Read more
An inquest into the death of Brit Frederick Edwards in 1933 found 200 nails, 36 staples and 3 penknives in his stomach. But he didn’t even have half the appetite of Frenchman Michel Lotito, whose stage name was “Mr Eat All.” Michel ate 18 bicycles, 15 shopping carts, 7 TV sets, a computer, numerous razor blades and, believe it or not, one Cessna 150 light aircraft. The aircraft meal was not fast food, though; it took him two years, 1978 – 1980, to munch through the delight. He finished the shopping cart in four-and-a-half days.
On average, Lotito ate 2 lb (almost a kg) of glass and metal a day (as seen in the Mr Eat All video). His strange diets certainly was enough to get him into the Guinness Book of Records section of unusual skills. Only bananas and hard-boiled eggs made him feel sick, he said. Read more
Counting the inches
The word “ton” is derived from the French “tonnerre,” or “thunder,” from the sound wine barrels made when rolled. But there are various standards of a ton. You get a long ton, a short ton and metric ton. A US ton, the short ton, is equivalent to 2000 pounds (907.185 kilograms). A British ton, the [...]
